Pope Leo XIV approves decrees for the causes of saints and recognizes the martyrdom of Guatemalan Fr. Augusto Rafael Ramírez Monasterio and Mother Maria Ignazia Isacchi, clearing the way for their beatification.

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The Polish Military Ordinariate has awarded the Benemerenti Prize to the Polish-language section of Vatican Radio–Vatican News and L’Osservatore Romano in recognition of their contribution to promoting the values of peace. The honor was also conferred on several units of the Polish Armed Forces: the Operational Command of the Armed Forces, the Armed Forces Support Inspectorate, and the Air Force Orchestra.

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Marking the fifth anniversary of the Treaty of the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, several Bishops of Japan and the United States renew calls for nations to work toward a world free of nuclear arms.

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As the humanitarian emergency intensifies for severe flooding across Mozambique, the UN Children's Fund illustrates that children are most affected, and that waterborne illnesses and malnutrition are a 'lethal combination.'

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At a conference in Rome, Cardinal Kurt Koch and Metropolitan Job of Pisidia reflect on the thousand year-old rupture between the Catholic and Orthodox Churches, and the 1965 Joint Declaration by Patriarch Athenagoras and Pope Saint Paul VI which set them on the road to unity.

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Jan 21, 2026 / 16:26 pm (CNA).

Christin Solidarity Worldwide (CSW), a U.K.-based human rights organization, has called on Nigerian authorities to “secure the release” of 167 worshippers reportedly abducted during coordinated attacks on three churches in Kurmin Wali community, Kajuru local government area (LGA) of Kaduna state.

In a Tuesday, Jan. 20, report shared with ACI Africa, the sister service of EWTN News in Africa, CSW leadership condemned the mass abduction that reportedly took place on Jan. 18 while worshippers were attending Sunday church services.

According to the report, attempts by CSW Nigeria staff to access the community to verify the incident were blocked by the military, which reportedly cited standing orders barring entry into the area.

“CSW is highly concerned by the official efforts to obscure the abductions that took place in Kurmin Wali and to prevent residents from speaking to the press,” CSW’s Founder President Mervyn Thomas said in the report.

Thomas urged Nigerian authorities to “do everything in their power to secure the release of those abducted from Kurmin Wali on 18 January, as well as all other abductees currently held in terrorist captivity in Nigeria’s central and northern states.”

“The government of Nigeria at both state and federal levels must be transparent about the scale and severity of the security crisis the country is experiencing, and specifically about the asymmetry with which Christian communities are being targeted, in order to ensure an effective response to the terrorism that has blighted the lives of vulnerable citizens across central Nigeria for far too long,” Thomas said.

According to the CSW report, armed assailants believed to be Fulani militia stormed Kurmin Wali at around 9 a.m., arriving on foot and on motorcycles.

The attackers reportedly split into three groups, targeting the Evangelical Church Winning All (ECWA), Albarka Cherubim and Seraphim 1, and Haske Cherubim and Seraphim 2 churches.

Local sources told CSW that worshippers were rounded up and forced into nearby bushland. Elderly women and young children were later released, while 11 individuals managed to escape.

As of Jan. 20, CSW said 167 people remained in captivity.

The CSW report further indicated that the “Adara people of Kajuru LGA have been under sustained attack since their traditional ruler, the Agom Adara III, HRH Dr Maiwada Raphael Galadima, was abducted and murdered by Fulani assailants in 2018, despite payment of a ransom.”

“Kurmin Wali and surrounding communities have endured repeated attacks and abductions. For example, on Jan. 11, 2026, 21 people were abducted from the community and were only freed after paying around 7 million Naira (US$4,932) in ransom,” the report further indicated.

The report recounted that earlier, on Jan. 2, ECWA church leader Rev. Philip Adamu “was among four people abducted from Ungwan Danladi village in Kajuru LGA by assailants who spoke Fulfude, the Fulani language, and who called the community the following day, demanding ransoms of 20 million Naira [about $14,000] for Rev. Adamu, and 10 million Naira [about $7,000] for the other hostages.”

CSW described the repeated attacks as a failure of government responsibility, warning that rural communities are being driven deeper into poverty by ransom payments and forced displacement.

“While applauding the military successes recorded in the past few months, CSW condemns the repeated attacks on the vulnerable people in Kurmin Wali and surrounding communities,” said Rev. Yunusa Sabo Nmadu, the chief executive officer of CSW.

He urged the security agencies to “ensure the prompt release of those abducted and to enhance security for all other vulnerable areas.”

“We also call on the government to strengthen the local capacity of these villagers to serve as the first line of defense against terrorists who are increasingly emboldened by each unchallenged abduction,” Nmadu said.

The recent attacks come despite the Nigerian government’s designation of the Fulani militia and other armed groups as terrorist organizations in December 2025 under a new counterterrorism doctrine. CSW said the continued abductions raise serious concerns about the enforcement and protection of civilians.

Meanwhile, CSW reported that in neighboring Kogi state, 24 of 30 worshippers abducted in December 2025 have been released following the payment of a ransom, though six people remain in captivity and several others died while being held.

This story was first published by ACI Africa, the sister service of EWTN News in Africa. It has been adapted by EWTN News English.

Jan 21, 2026 / 15:49 pm (CNA).

A federal health spending bill would impose a long-enforced ban on using taxpayer funds for elective abortion, known as the Hyde Amendment.

The U.S. House is set to consider the bill this week, which would fund the departments of Labor, Education, and Health and Human Services. Lawmakers would need to pass spending bills in both chambers and send them to the White House by Jan. 30 or the government could face another partial shutdown.

Republican President Donald Trump had asked his party to be “flexible” in its approach to the provision in a separate funding bill. According to a Jan. 19 news release from the Republican-led House Appropriations Committee, the Labor-HHS-Education spending bill includes the provision “protecting the lives of unborn children” known as the Hyde Amendment.

The Hyde Amendment, which is not permanent law, was first included as a rider in federal spending bills in 1976. It was included consistently since then although some recent legislation and budget proposals have sometimes excluded it. The provision would ban federal funds for abortion except when the unborn child is conceived through rape or incest or if the life of the mother is at risk.

Katie Glenn Daniel, director of legal affairs and policy counsel for Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, said the amendment is “a long-standing federal policy that’s been included for the last five decades and is popular with the American people.”

“Americans don’t want to pay for abortion on demand,” she said.

Many Democratic lawmakers have sought to eliminate the rider in recent years, saying it disproportionately limits abortion access for low-income women. Former President Joe Biden reversed his longtime support of the Hyde Amendment in the lead-up to the 2020 election and refused to include it in his spending proposals, saying: “If I believe health care is a right, as I do, I can no longer support an amendment that makes that right dependent on someone’s zip code.” But Republicans successfully negotiated the rider’s inclusion into spending bills.

In January 2025, Trump issued an executive order directing the government to enforce the Hyde Amendment. A year later, Trump urged Republicans to be “a little flexible on Hyde” when lawmakers were negotiating the extension of health care subsidies related to the Affordable Care Act. A White House spokesperson also said the president would work with Congress to ensure the strongest possible pro-life protections.

The House eventually passed the extension without the Hyde Amendment after 17 Republicans joined Democrats to support the bill. The Senate has not yet advanced the measure, where the question of whether to include the Hyde Amendment has been a point of contention between Republicans and Democrats.

In mid-January, Trump announced a plan to change how health care subsidies are disbursed. There was no mention of the Hyde Amendment in the White House’s 827-word memo.

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops has consistently lobbied for the inclusion of the Hyde Amendment in spending bills. On Jan. 14, the bishops sent a letter to Congress “to stress in the strongest possible terms that Hyde is essential for health care policy that protects human dignity.”

“Authentic health care and the protection of human life go hand in hand,” the letter said. “There can be no compromise on these two combined values.”

Jan 21, 2026 / 14:55 pm (CNA).

Approximately 10,000 people — mainly a young and engaged crowd — gathered at Place Vauban in Paris for the annual March for Life on Jan. 18.

Each year, the march is held around Jan. 17 because on that date in 1975 abortion was first legalized under the Veil Act, named after the health minister at the time, Simone Veil.

This year’s march was held two years after France made history in 2024 by becoming the first and only country in the world to enshrine access to abortion directly in its constitution.

Paris’ March for Life has not been solely focused on abortion, with the debate over life issues becoming intensified in recent months. In March 2025, the French National Assembly approved a bill to legalize assisted dying for adults suffering from incurable, serious, and terminal illnesses, both physical and psychological.

Demonstrators at the march on Sunday protested the French government’s plans to legalize euthanasia.

“They say you can help people die. But the intention is to give death, and that is not our job. It cannot be our job,” said geriatric doctor Geneviève Bourgeois in an interview with EWTN News. “That’s not how you soothe people. There is suffering, but if you kill the sufferer, you don’t kill the suffering, you kill the patient.”

‘Life is a gift from God’

One of the most prominent Catholic voices in France is Bishop Dominique Rey, one of the few senior Church leaders to attend a March for Life.

“We must not touch life. Life is a gift from God,” Rey told EWTN News. “In the defense of life, we need freedom and the courage not to be afraid, even when some media are very opposed to the defense of life, liberty, and freedom.”

He continued: “In France, in Europe, and in the world, we need the courage of the Church to say that this is very important for the future of humanity and for the future of the Church: to be strongly engaged in the defense of life.”

Among those present at this year’s march was Emilie Quinson, who had three abortions earlier in her life. “What was very difficult for me was that I was not informed about what an abortion was, under what circumstances it would take place, or about its consequences,” she told EWTN News.

Today, she is a leading figure in the pro-life movement. “I got married, I have five wonderful children, and my daughter is here with me today,” she said. “I went through a long process of rebuilding and forgiveness, because for a woman who has had an abortion, the hardest thing is forgiveness — first forgiving herself, and then receiving God’s forgiveness.

Jan 21, 2026 / 14:03 pm (CNA).

As the centenary year of the Cristero War, also known as the Cristiada, begins, Auxiliary Bishop Pedro Mena of the Archdiocese of Yucatán in Mexico emphasized that “history is a great teacher.”

In an interview with ACI Prensa, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News, Mena noted that when he was in elementary and high school, the Cristero War was not mentioned in Mexican history classes.

Mena, 70, emphasized that Christians, “from the perspective of our faith, must know the entire history” and “learn from this event,” acknowledging that “it will always be controversial; it has its virtues, its flaws, its excesses, but I believe we must learn from this event.”

Father Javier Olivera Ravas will also be giving a conference on “The Cristero Resistance” on Feb. 6 at the Foro Cine Colón in Mérida, Yucatán.

Addressing the theme accompanying the announcement for the conference — “Where There Is the Cross and Sacrifice, Glory Is Born” — Mena highlighted that as the early Church theologian Tertullian said, “‘the blood of the martyrs is the seed’ of new Christians.”

The prelate recalled that when Pope John Paul II visited San Juan de los Lagos in 1990, in the region known as the Altos de Jalisco — where the Cristeros had a very strong presence — “one thing that really struck me was that they placed in the square in front of the cathedral [the title] ‘Land of Martyrs.’”

According to Mena, the large number of vocations found in that region, and in other areas with a strong Cristero history, is explained by the fact that parents often take their children “to different places and say: ‘This is where such and such a martyr lived, this is where so-and-so martyr was the parish priest, this is where this layperson lived.’ In other words, from a young age, they were thinking about those who had given their lives for Christ.”

Church-state relations in Mexico

In the decades following the Cristero War — which officially took place from 1926 to 1929 — the government did not repeal the oppressive laws restricting religious freedom that had triggered the rebellion but rather simply ceased to enforce them.

Mena noted how, during Pope John Paul II’s first trip to Mexico in 1979, “there were those who protested because he was wearing his cassock, which was prohibited by the laws that were still in effect at the time.”

In 1992, the 1917 Constitution — the origin of many of the restrictions that would later trigger the Cristero War — was reformed, and the so-called “Calles Law” was replaced with the current “Law on Religious Associations and Public Worship.” In this way, relations between church and state were reestablished.

Nevertheless, the prelate acknowledged that the relationship between the Catholic Church and state can occasionally be “a little tense,” although “there are open channels through which we can dialogue” with the authorities.

Lessons from the Cristero War for today

For the auxiliary bishop of Yucatán, an important lesson that the Cristero uprising in Mexico taught, a century after it occurred, “is that we must always sit down and discern how we, as a Church, are responding.”

“The important thing right now is to understand this great event in depth, as much as possible, to sit down and discern it from the perspective of God’s word and our mission as a Church,” he said, pointing to an important concern: “Is the evangelization we are carrying out in the Church today creating mature Christians?”

Regarding the apostolate to young people today, who are immersed in social media, the prelate emphasized the importance of “making them think,” “engaging them in a dynamic where they feel challenged,” and “encouraging them to ask questions.”

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News. It has been translated and adapted by EWTN News English.

Jan 21, 2026 / 13:33 pm (CNA).

A coalition of religious groups that includes an order of Protestant nuns and two Catholic dioceses scored a major victory after the state of New York backed off trying to force the groups to cover abortion in their health insurance plans.

The state government in a Jan. 16 agreement agreed to drop its efforts to force abortion coverage onto the dioceses of Ogdensburg and Albany, along with two Catholic Charities groups and numerous other religious plaintiffs.

The concession came months after the U.S. Supreme Court ordered the state court of appeals to review the long-running case in light of a major religious liberty victory at the high court in June 2025.

That victory, Catholic Charities Bureau v. Wisconsin Labor and Industry Review, saw the Supreme Court unanimously affirm that the U.S. Constitution “ mandates government neutrality between religions” and that states may not impose unlawful “denominational preferences” between religious organizations.

In the Wisconsin case, the state had attempted to argue that a Catholic charity’s undertakings were not “primarily” religious and that the group thus did not qualify for a tax exemption. The New York government had adopted a similar argument, exempting religious groups from the abortion mandate only if they primarily employ members of their own faith.

In a press release celebrating the New York victory, the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty — which represented the religious groups in their fight against the mandate — described the state’s effort as a “disgraceful campaign.”

“This victory confirms that the government cannot punish religious ministries for living out their faith by serving everyone,” attorney Lori Windham said.

In addition to the Protestant nuns and the Catholic groups, the plaintiffs included a Lutheran church, a Baptist church, and a Teresian nursing home.

The nuns, a contemplative order called the Sisters of St. Mary, are known for raising Cashmere goats at their cloister in Greenwich, New York.

Their sponsorship of a 4-H club and their leasing of the goats to local youth led the state to deny them the exemption to the abortion mandate, according to Becket. The religious exemption, Becket had argued, was “so narrow” that “Jesus himself would not qualify for it.”