NATION/WORLD

HOUSTON (CNA/EWTN News) — A Houston grand jury on Monday indicted the leaders behind the undercover videos which exposed Planned Parenthood’s role in offering fetal tissue for compensation. The grand jury had been investigating alleged misconduct by Planned Parenthood.

CEBU, Philippines (CNS) — Los Angeles Auxiliary Bishop Robert Barron said popular culture’s message of individuals being “infinitely right” is “repugnant to (Catholics’) Eucharistic faith.” But he also said Christianity is “running on fumes” as it tries to counter the trend of people leaving the Church or staying away from the Eucharist.

A practice already observed by the pope and many priests around the world is now an official Vatican decree.

Some are forecasting about a million anti-abortion protestors at the March For Life 2016 Rally Jan. 22. That group always includes countless young people from parishes, high schools and universities nationwide.

The theology, Christopher West said, offered a prophetic response to the rise of a new gender ideology in which individuals asserted a right to choose a gender, often of their own creation, instead of accepting gender as biologically determined.

"We come with a luggage full of dreams," the deacon said, yet the ever-present news about Canada's plan to welcome 25,000 Syrian refugees made him pensive.

The number of abortions, which had peaked at about 1.6 million in 1989, is now down to 1 million, but those performed at Planned Parenthood clinics is up 250 percent in the same time period.

The Vatican previously announced that one Friday each month during the Holy Year, Pope Francis would personally and privately perform a work of mercy.

The celebration of the priest — who founded 24 missions and held a host of other titles — kicked off the yearlong celebration of the National Park Service's 100th anniversary.

One by one, Pope Francis poured water from a gilded shell and gently caressed the head of each of the 13 girls and 13 boys.