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Jan 6, 2026 / 18:30 pm (CNA).

The U.S. State Department announced that Secretary of State Marco Rubio has spoken with Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin about the situation in Venezuela.

During the Jan. 6 call, the State Department indicated that “the two leaders discussed pressing challenges, including efforts to improve the humanitarian situation, particularly in Venezuela, as well as the promotion of peace and religious freedom globally.”

Both leaders “reaffirmed their commitment to deepening cooperation between the United States and the Holy See in addressing shared priorities around the world,” the State Department added.

At the time of this publication, the Vatican had not provided details about the call. Parolin served as apostolic nuncio to Venezuela from 2009 to 2013.

On Sunday, Jan. 4, during the Angelus prayer, Pope Leo XIV expressed his concern about the situation in the country and called for full respect for Venezuela’s national sovereignty following the Jan. 3 U.S. military operation that resulted in the capture of Nicolás Maduro and Cilia Flores.

“With a heart full of concern, I am following the evolution of the situation in Venezuela,” the pope stated, emphasizing that “the good of the beloved Venezuelan people must prevail above any other consideration.”

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

Jan 6, 2026 / 18:10 pm (CNA).

President Donald Trump is asking congressional Republicans to be more flexible on taxpayer funding for abortions as lawmakers continue to negotiate an extension to health care subsidies related to the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare.

Some federal subsidies that lowered premiums for those enrolled in the Affordable Care Act expired in December.

The Kaiser Family Foundation estimates that the average increase to premiums for people who lost the subsidies will be about 114%, from $888 in 2025 to $1,904 in 2026. The exact costs will be different, depending on specific plans.

Trump has encouraged his party to work on extending those subsidies and is asking them to be “flexible” on a provision that could affect tax-funded abortion. Democrats have proposed ending the restrictions of the Hyde Amendment, which bans direct federal funding for abortions in most cases.

“Let the money go directly to the people,” Trump said at the House Republican Conference retreat at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts on Jan. 6.

“Now you have to be a little flexible on Hyde,” the president said. “You know that you got to be a little flexible. You got to work something [out]. You got to use ingenuity. You got to work. We’re all big fans of everything, but you got to be flexible. You have to have flexibility.”

The Hyde Amendment began as a bipartisan provision in funding bills that prohibited the use of federal funds for more than 45 years. Lawmakers have reauthorized the prohibition every year since it was first introduced in 1976.

A study from the Charlotte Lozier Institute estimates that the Hyde Amendment has saved more than 2.6 million lives. According to a poll conducted by the Marist Institute for Public Opinion, which was commissioned by the Knights of Columbus, nearly 6 in 10 Americans oppose tax funding for abortions.

However, in recent years, many Democratic politicians have tried to keep the rule out of spending bills. Former President Joe Biden abandoned the Hyde Amendment in budget proposals, but it was ultimately included in the final compromise versions that became law.

Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, criticized Trump for urging flexibility on the provision, calling its support “an unshakeable bedrock principle and a minimum standard in the Republican Party.”

Dannenfelser said Republicans “are sure to lose this November” if they abandon Hyde: “The voters sent a [Republican] trifecta to Washington and they expect it to govern like one.”

“Giving in to Democrat demands that our tax dollars are used to fund plans that cover abortion on demand until birth would be a massive betrayal,” she said.

Dannenfelser also noted that, before these comments, Trump has consistently supported the Hyde Amendment. The president issued an executive order in January on enforcing the Hyde Amendment that accused Biden’s administration of disregarding this “commonsense policy.”

“For nearly five decades, the Congress has annually enacted the Hyde Amendment and similar laws that prevent federal funding of elective abortion, reflecting a long-standing consensus that American taxpayers should not be forced to pay for that practice,” the executive order reads.

“It is the policy of the United States, consistent with the Hyde Amendment, to end the forced use of federal taxpayer dollars to fund or promote elective abortion,” it adds.

Jan 6, 2026 / 17:38 pm (CNA).

Scott Adams, the 68-year-old cartoonist who created the decades-long “Dilbert” comic strip, announced he is converting to Christianity amid his deteriorating health caused by terminal cancer.

Adams, who was diagnosed with prostate cancer in May 2025, had previously been critical of organized religion and expressed skepticism about traditional faiths in blog posts and two fiction books titled “God’s Debris” and its sequel, “The Religion War.”

On the Jan. 1 episode of his podcast “Real Coffee with Scott Adams,” the cartoonist expressed a change of heart following numerous conversations with Christian friends.

“I’ve not been a believer, but I also have respect for any Christian who goes another way to try to convert me,” Adams said. “Because how would I believe [that] you believe your own religion if you’re not trying to convert me? So I have great respect for people who care enough that they want me to convert and then go out of their way to try to convince me.”

Adams then informed his viewers “it is my plan to convert,” adding: “I still have time, but my understanding is, you’re never too late.”

“And on top of that, any skepticism I have about reality would certainly be instantly answered if I wake up in heaven,” he said.

Speaking to “my Christian friends,” Adams said: “It’s coming, so you don’t need to talk me into it.”

Adams appeared to invoke “ Pascal’s Wager,” which is an argument about the risks and rewards of following Jesus Christ, which was articulated by the 17th-century French Catholic philosopher and mathematician Blaise Pascal.

The argument was not meant to be a “proof” for God or even an argument about whether God exists. Rather, Pascal argued that accepting God can lead one to eternal life if he exists and it carries little risk even if he did not exist, but rejecting God will lead to eternal consequences if he exists and does not yield significant benefits even if he did not exist.

As Adams summarized his view: “If it turns out that there’’s nothing there, I've lost nothing, but I’ve respected your wishes, and I like doing that. If it turns out there is something there and the Christian model is the closest to it, I win.”

Adams’ cancer has spread through his bones and he is paralyzed below his waist. He is also suffering from heart failure.

Father Thomas Petri, a Dominican theologian, said this announcement is “very good news” and that he will continue to pray for Adams.

Petri said he has seen some Christians online try to suggest the conversion is not genuine because “he seems to be doing it merely as a wager in case God exists.” Yet, Petri said, “I’m fine with that wager.”

“Few people come to God with a perfectly formed faith,” he said. “Yet, because we believe God is love, it’s hard to think that Scott Adams’ gesture would not be received and blessed by him.”

“Naturally, as we approach death we become more focused on ultimate things and questions,” Petri added. “Trusting in God opens us to the possibility that death is not an end but an avenue to something greater. I pray that even the most hardened sinners have some desire for God even in their last moments. I think that’s enough for God to work with.”

Jimmy Akin, a senior apologist at Catholic Answers who debated Adams on assisted suicide in 2015, said he is “very glad that [Adams] has decided to seek out God in this difficult time.”

“God has many ways of drawing people to himself,” Akin said.

“On the human level, we’re built to think about events and challenges that we will soon be facing, so as we see that death is drawing near, it’s only natural for people to begin thinking about what may come after death and to try to make plans for it,” he said. “This can create an openness to the idea of God and to Christianity, even if a person was not religious previously.”

In other cases, Akin said some people “have become hardened by years of living without God” but that “God can still reach out by his grace … and being the person to him.”

“As Jesus taught us, it is never too late in this life for a person to turn to God,” he said. “That’s one of the major points of the parable of the workers in the vineyard.”

Jan 6, 2026 / 16:20 pm (CNA).

What does large-scale bombing sound like? What does it feel like to be in the middle of a series of explosions? After Jan. 3, everyone in Caracas, the capital of Venezuela, is able to answer these questions.

Around 2 a.m. local time on Jan. 3, as the U.S. military carried out Operation Absolute Resolve to capture President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, terrifying explosions interrupted the sleep of millions. A family from east Caracas, the Bertis, along with their neighbors experienced the chaos firsthand.

Survival was ‘a miracle’

It’s one thing to be awakened by the relatively distant sound of planes and bombs, and quite another to be jolted awake by the devastating roar of a projectile landing less than 20 meters (65 feet) from your room.

Elena Berti, 78, was sleeping alone in her house when a projectile landed in her yard during the bombings. Berti lives in a small neighborhood near an area known as El Volcán, where there are antennas that were among the U.S. military’s targets.

The force of the explosion was devastating. “My house is destroyed, my house is destroyed!” was all Berti could manage to say on the phone to her daughter, Patricia Salazar, who was only able to help her mother hours later, when it was already daylight and the danger had passed.

“She always sleeps with a rosary behind her pillow and always has a number of statues of saints on her nightstand; some of them, unfortunately, lost their heads. I say a miracle was worked for her, as well as for my aunt and uncle who live upstairs,” Salazar said in an interview with ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner.

Two large windows, located above Berti’s head as she slept, were blown to pieces. A large piece of the headboard of her bed, made of heavy wood, also broke. Several doors and walls were destroyed. The kitchen was almost unrecognizable. There is such significant damage to the structure of the house that a large portion needs to be demolished.

But Berti was completely unharmed.

“In the morning, she started sending me the photos,” Salazar said, “very graphic ones, of the destroyed house, and the only thing I wrote back was a phrase from the Novena of Abandonment, which I’ve been reading: ‘Oh Jesus, I give myself totally to you, I abandon myself to you, you take care of everything,’” she recalled, visibly moved.

“Our dear God will help us; he’s the one who saved my mom and my aunt and uncle, who could have easily died because, well, what are the odds that a missile ... with all that power, comes falling in your garden and destroys, to say the least, half of your house? The windows shattered completely; they could have been cut in two. I can’t tell you what happened, but a miracle definitely occurred,” she said.

20 feet less and ‘it would have been a disaster’

Windows and doors of houses more than 660 feet from the point of impact were destroyed. Almost the entire neighborhood was affected, not only in terms of material damage but also psychologically.

On the second floor of Berti’s house, in a separate apartment, lives her brother Arturo. That night he stayed up very late: He had been reading in his living room until just a few minutes before the projectile hit. The living room ended up being the area most affected by the explosion.

“A little while later [after he had left the room] I heard a long whistling sound and then an impact, a phenomenal explosion, something incredible. Everything shook, the bed shook. I felt the building shake, all the windows shattered, the bed was covered in glass,” Arturo Berti recounted.

He immediately tried to take cover with his wife, not knowing exactly what had happened. Arturo said that those who have heard his story and seen the videos of the explosion have no explanation how they managed to come out alive.

“It has to be a miracle, it’s something incredible. If it had been six meters [20 feet] less, it would have fallen into the house, and I don’t know what would have happened; it would have been a disaster. Of course, I believe strongly in God, I have always believed in God, in the Virgin Mary, and in [St.] José Gregorio. That’s how it is, it was the hand of God,” he said, on the verge of tears.

Right next to the Berti residence live Gracia Mónaco and her daughter, Ana María Campos. The damage to their house was concentrated in their two bedrooms.

Amid the smoke and rubble, Campos went to her mother’s room, which no longer had windows. The frames were severely bent, and the walls were violently cracked.

Mónaco’s faith had clung to a small statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary, which she had just placed on her nightstand a few hours before the bombings.

“This Virgin Mary statue that’s here wasn’t here two days ago. I found it in the closet where I had stored it and I said: I’m going to put it out again,” she recounted.

“My window exploded here, debris came in, I suffered through the moment, but this Virgin Mary statue remained here without moving, without falling over, and for me that means something. You have to believe in that, that God exists, that he is with us,” she added.

Campos said her shock and nerves were eased by her mother’s faith.

“My mom tells me: Look, Ana María, I had this Virgin Mary statue put away, and I took it out. You should have seen how that statue was: Intact, it didn’t even fall. Everything else had fallen, and the Virgin Mary remained standing. She held it in her hand and placed it next to where it had been and said to me: Don’t you believe in God, don’t you have faith? That truth moved me,” she said.

Mónaco, her daughter, the Berti family, and all their neighbors are proof of the unwavering faith of Venezuelans, even in the most adverse conditions, which have been many in the last 25 years.

“This is important to me, it’s vital because I have faith, and faith is with me all the time. That’s why I tell her that we must always believe, not just occasionally. God is with us always, at all times and in all circumstances,” Mónaco said.

The Berti family has started a fundraising campaign where anyone can contribute to the reconstruction of their house. Those who wish to do so can also donate building materials for Mónaco’s house and those of the other neighbors.

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

Jan 6, 2026 / 14:10 pm (CNA).

Russell Shaw, a Catholic writer and journalist whose prolific career spanned decades including years of work for the U.S. bishops, died Jan. 6 at the age of 90.

Catholic writer Mike Aquilina announced Shaw’s death on Facebook, describing him as a “pundit, journalist, novelist, virtuoso of friendship,” and a “mentor” to those in Catholic media.

Born May 19, 1935, in Washington, D.C., Shaw attended Gonzaga High School and then Georgetown University, at which he eventually obtained a master of arts degree in English literature in 1960.

He would subsequently go on to write for the Catholic Standard, the newspaper of the Archdiocese of Washington, D.C., after which he joined the staff of the National Catholic Welfare Conference (NCWC) News Service.

Shaw’s work at NCWC began what would become years of association with the U.S. bishops — first at the welfare conference and eventually as the director of the National Catholic Office for Information at the National Conference of Catholic Bishops/United States Catholic Conference.

He served a variety of roles there including as associate secretary for communication and secretary for public affairs. He served as press secretary of the U.S. delegations to the world Synods of Bishops held in Rome between 1971 and 1987 and was the national coordinator of media relations during Pope John Paul II’s pastoral visits to the U.S. in 1979 and 1987.

Later in his career, Shaw worked as a freelance writer, including years of columns written for CNA as well as for CNA’s sister news partner the National Catholic Register.

The author of more than 20 books, including works on ethics and moral theology, he also contributed to the New Catholic Encyclopedia and the Catholic Social Sciences Encyclopedia.

Shaw was predeceased by his wife, Carmen, to whom he was married for more than 50 years. The Shaws leave behind five children and numerous grandchildren.

Aquilina in announcing his passing said Shaw “wrote thousands of articles and dozens of books” and described him as a “wise man.”

Catholic writer and National Review Institute Senior Fellow Kathryn Jean Lopez, meanwhile, called the news of Shaw’s death “heartbreaking” and described him as “a good/great man who loved Jesus.”

She told CNA on Jan. 6 that Shaw “loved God, his family, and was wise about the realities of the Church in the world.”

“He knew that the Church is not just the clergy, but all of us, working toward heaven together,” Lopez said.

She said he possessed a “unique gift for being able both to work for the institutions of the Church and retain the freedom of Christ at the same time.”

“God surely blessed us with the life of Russell Shaw,” she continued. “May we be worthy of the gift by answering the call to holiness he dedicated his life to.”

Shaw’s work, meanwhile, provides Catholics in media “a great example and legacy to learn from,” she said.