St. Joseph Church

United Nations Building and the flags in Geneva Switzerland. / Credit: Nexus 7/Shutterstock

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jan 30, 2025 / 18:05 pm (CNA).

During its first week in office, the administration of President Donald Trump announced that the United States has rejoined the Geneva Consensus Declaration, a coalition of nations united in support of pro-life and pro-women policies.

The U.S. was a founding member of the Geneva Consensus Declaration (GCD), which was established in 2020 during Trump’s first term. Along with the U.S., Brazil, Egypt, Hungary, Indonesia, and Uganda were among the original signatories.

According to the Institute for Women’s Health (IWH), a key supporter of the GCD, the alliance was forged to “protect the health and thriving of women throughout every stage of life, assert that there is no international right to abortion, defend the family as foundational to every healthy society, and protect the sovereign right of nations to support these core values through national policy and legislation.” 

Today, 40 member nations are signatories of the declaration.

Valerie Huber, president of IWH and the architect of the GCD, said: “We knew that countries were standing for these values prior to the GCD, but when countries stand together, that multiplies the impact.” 

“Now 40 countries have declared that when we are talking about human rights, abortion is not one of them,” Huber continued. 

In 2021, nine days after his inauguration, former President Joe Biden withdrew the United States from the GCD. 

“The GCD, of course, poses a threat to progressive global hegemony because it’s both politically effective and entirely voluntary,” Huber said.

But in his second term as president, within the first 100 hours of his presidency, Trump recommitted the U.S. to the GCD, becoming the 40th nation to join the alliance. 

Huber, who served in the first Trump administration as the first special representative for global women’s health, initiated the GCD to make a pro-family and pro-women political declaration and nation-to-nation partnership.

In an IWH press release, Huber said: “By rejoining, President Trump sends a bold message that the United States stands with sovereign nations to defend the real health needs of women against coercive tactics by global power players.” 

“The Biden administration’s withdrawal from the GCD misrepresented and undermined the coalition’s commitment to advance health and thriving for women at every stage of life. Despite relentless efforts by critics to dismantle and discredit it, IWH celebrates that the GCD has not only survived but thrived over the past four years — expanding its membership and influence,” she said.

Huber said that after the news broke of America’s reentry, she received communications from multiple countries excited to be in the same coalition as the United States and eager to connect with the nation. 

“I hope that we have the opportunity to show more countries and more people that the good of America is back, and it never really left because so many Americans share the same altruistic, compassionate, and good heart,” Huber concluded.

The Metropolitan Cathedral Santiago Apóstol and the National Palace in Managua, Nicaragua. / Credit: Martin Thurnherr, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

Lima Newsroom, Jan 30, 2025 / 17:35 pm (CNA).

The Nicaraguan dictatorship has forced the Poor Clare nuns to leave their monasteries in Managua and Chinandega in an action described by a well-known researcher as a “night of terror.” 

According to the newspaper Mosaico CSI, the dictatorship’s order was carried out on the night of Jan. 28, forcing some 30 cloistered nuns belonging to the Order of St. Clare to leave their monasteries.

An ecclesiastical source cited by the Nicaraguan newspaper states that the dictatorship’s envoys “first went to notify the sisters (in the Monastery of the Franciscan Poor Clare Sisters) in Managua and then went to Chinandega (to the Monastery of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary).”

“They were told they had to leave and they were allowed to take some of their belongings,” the source added.

Martha Patricia Molina, a lawyer, researcher, and author of the report “Nicaragua: A Persecuted Church?” — which in its latest edition documents almost 1,000 attacks by the dictatorship against the Catholic Church in the Central American country since 2018 — described what happened as a “night of terror for the nuns.”

Molina noted on X that the dictatorship’s agents “only allowed them to take a few belongings, just enough for their hands. Most of the nuns are Nicaraguan. Their whereabouts are unknown.”

The researcher stated that “the legal personhood of the congregation was granted to them by the National Assembly in February 2004, but on May 19, 2023, it was arbitrarily canceled.”

In a Jan. 29 statement to ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner, Molina said the nuns’ legal status was cancelled by “voluntary dissolution,” although “we already know that the ‘voluntary’ part doesn’t exist in the country but that the dictatorship forces them [to dissolve] under a state of siege.”

Bishop Álvarez’s residence in Matagalpa emptied out

On Jan. 28, the dictatorship also showed up at the chancery in Matagalpa, the residence of Bishop Rolando Álvarez, who has been living in exile in Rome since January 2024, and removed all the goods, furniture, and equipment, including religious objects, from the place.

“It’s the same dictatorship that is taking these things away, because at least in [St. Aloysius Gonzaga] Major Seminary of Philosophy they didn’t allow them to take anything, they only let the seminarians take their personal things,” a layman from Matagalpa told Mosaico CSI.

Molina told ACI Prensa that everything they took was loaded onto “several white trucks used to remove all the belongings, like a cross. They [the onlookers] tell me that seeing that was painful.”

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

Bishop Robert Barron is the founder of Word on Fire, a media apostolate focused on evangelization. / Credit: Word on Fire

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jan 30, 2025 / 17:05 pm (CNA).

Bishop Robert Barron has released a statement commending President Donald Trump’s recent executive order banning federal funding for “transgender” medical interventions for minors. 

“I welcome the president’s executive order,” Barron said in a statement in his capacity as chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Laity, Marriage, Family Life, and Youth.

“So many young people who have been victims of this ideological crusade have profound regrets over its life-altering consequences, such as infertility and lifelong dependence on costly hormone therapies that have significant side effects,” Barron said.

In his statement, the Minnesota bishop who is also the founder of the Catholic media apostolate Word on Fire condemned the widespread promotion of “transgender” medical interventions for minors that came into vogue under the Biden administration, calling them “unacceptable.” 

Referencing Pope Francis’ 2024 papal declaration Dignitas Infinita, Barron emphasized that “we are all called to accept the gift of our bodies created in God’s image as male and female” and to recognize the inherent beauty of sexual difference as the foundation of marriage. 

“I also applaud the executive order’s aim to identify and develop research-based therapies to aid young people struggling with gender dysphoria,” he continued. “These individuals are loved by God and possess the same inherent dignity that all persons do. They deserve care that heals rather than harms.”

At the USCCB fall meeting in Baltimore last year, Barron spoke about his committee’s “Love Means More” initiative based on Dignitas Infinita. The effort is intended to share the foundational principles of Church teaching about love in such a way that Catholics and non-Catholics alike can understand. 

“Helping young people accept their bodies and their vocation as women and men is the true path of freedom and happiness,” he concluded. 

David Daleiden arrives for court at the Harris County Courthouse after surrendering to authorities on Feb. 4, 2016, in Houston. / Credit: Eric Kayne/Getty Images

CNA Staff, Jan 30, 2025 / 16:35 pm (CNA).

The state of California has agreed to a plea deal with pro-life activists David Daleiden and Sandra Merritt this week after a yearslong criminal prosecution of the two journalists.

State prosecutors launched the probe following the release of a series of undercover videos that appeared to implicate Planned Parenthood officials and the National Abortion Federation in the illegal sale of unborn baby parts. 

On Monday, Daleiden and Merritt pleaded “no contest” to one charge of unlawful recording of confidential communication in exchange for the dropping of several felony charges. 

As part of the plea deal, Daleiden and Merritt will receive “no jail time, no fines, no admission of wrongdoing, and no probation,” according to a Monday announcement by the Center for Medical Progress (CMP), a pro-life group founded and headed by Daleiden.

According to the CMP, the terms of the plea deal mean the pair will face “zero punishment.”

“The new ‘no contest’ plea — which cannot be used adversely — will be entered into judgment as a misdemeanor in six to 12 months and then converted to a ‘not guilty’ plea, dismissed, and expunged,” CMP said in a statement.

Daleiden welcomed this week’s settlement as a “huge victory” and noted that he planned to continue his pro-life work. 

“After enduring nine years of weaponized political prosecution, putting an end to the lawfare launched by Kamala Harris is a huge victory for my investigative reporting and for the public’s right to know the truth about Planned Parenthood’s sale of aborted baby body parts,” Daleiden said in a statement Monday. 

“Now we all must get to work to protect families and infants from the criminal abortion-industrial complex,” Daleiden said. 

When CMP in 2015 released the incriminating videos that showed Planned Parenthood officials discussing the selling of baby body parts, California officials launched the investigation into Daleiden and Merritt. 

Former Vice President Kamala Harris — then California’s Democrat attorney general — met with Planned Parenthood staff before ordering criminal investigations into Merritt and Daleiden, including a raid on Daleiden’s home.

California’s next attorney general, Xavier Becerra — who went on to become the director of the Department of Health and Human Services under the Biden administration — charged the two with 14 felony counts of unlawfully recording a conversation and one felony count of criminal conspiracy. 

In 2019, a California judge ruled that only nine of the 15 charges could be brought to trial. The case never went to trial amid delays. In a separate civil case in 2019, a federal jury awarded Planned Parenthood over $2 million in damages. Daleiden and Merritt appealed to the 9th Circuit, which upheld the jury’s findings. 

Steve Cooley, the former Los Angeles County district attorney who led Daleiden’s legal defense team, called the prosecution “vindictive.” 

“In my five decades as an attorney, 40 years of which were as a prosecutor, I have never seen such a blatant exercise of selective investigation and vindictive prosecution,” Cooley said in a Jan. 27 statement. 

“The California attorneys general who initiated this case and pursued it for nearly 10 years should be ashamed for weaponizing their office to pursue people who were merely exposing illegality associated with the harvesting and sale of fetal body parts,” Daleiden’s lawyer said.

Though Daleiden and Merritt were neither convicted nor found guilty, the state of California stated on Tuesday that California Attorney General Rob Bonta secured a “felony conviction” of Daleiden and Merritt.

Attorney General Bonta said his “office is securing criminal convictions to ensure that Californians can exercise their constitutional rights to reproductive health care” in a Jan. 28 press release.

But Daleiden said the statement is a misrepresentation of the case. 

“The attorney general’s press release misrepresents our agreement,” Daleiden told CNA. “The judge explicitly stated at the hearing yesterday that we would only be ‘convicted’ and ‘found guilty’ if we break the agreement.”

The attorney from Liberty Counsel who represented Merritt called the deal “essentially a complete victory for Merritt,” who was initially charged with 16 felonies and faced more than 10 years in prison. With the plea deal, the charges will be dropped and she will receive no prison time. 

“The plea agreement ends an unjust criminal case by dropping these baseless criminal charges without any prison time, fines, or other penalties,” Mat Staver, Liberty Counsel founder and chairman, said in a statement.

“Sandra deserves to be applauded and acclaimed for revealing these horrors and then enduring this selective and vindictive prosecution as a result,” Staver continued. “Murdering human babies to harvest their body parts for profit is evil and there is no excuse for Sandra’s political persecution.”

Daleiden plans to continue exposing injustices in the abortion industry. 

“Taking the San Francisco case off the board allows me to focus fully on CMP’s mission to report on the injustices of taxpayer-funded experiments on aborted babies and continue to expand our groundbreaking investigative reporting,” Daleiden said.

Former Nebraska Rep. Jeff Fortenberry. / Credit: Office of Rep. Jeff Fortenberry

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jan 30, 2025 / 16:05 pm (CNA).

A federal judge granted a request from the Department of Justice (DOJ) to drop criminal charges against former Nebraska Rep. Jeff Fortenberry, a Catholic and prominent pro-life leader who left Congress after being charged with making false statements during a probe into alleged illegal campaign donations.

Court records show Judge Trevor N. McFadden of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia signed the order on Wednesday, Jan. 29, on the same day the DOJ filed a legal motion to dismiss the charges.

Fortenberry’s charges were dismissed with prejudice, which prevents a future administration from bringing the same charges against the former Republican lawmaker from Nebraska at a later date.

“President [Donald] Trump knows better than anyone what false accusations and political persecution mean,” Fortenberry said in a statement, according to the Nebraska Examiner.

“The American people gave President Trump a mandate to end witch hunts like these and restore confidence in our justice system,” he said. “He kept his promises to America, in the very first days of his presidency, and we are so grateful. I want to thank all who loved and supported my family and me through this ordeal.”

Fortenberry represented Nebraska’s 1st District in the House from 2005 until 2022 when he resigned following his initial conviction. He had an A+ rating from Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America and introduced the Care for Her Act in 2021 to support women who face unplanned pregnancies. He also cosigned a congressional amicus brief that urged the United States Supreme Court to overturn Roe v. Wade.

The motion to dismiss was brought by four attorneys for the DOJ, including Edward R. Martin Jr., who was recently appointed by Trump to serve as the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia. Trump has been critical of the DOJ’s case against Fortenberry and praised the DOJ’s decision to drop the charges.

“It is great to see that the [DOJ] has dropped the witch hunt against former Congressman Jeff Fortenberry, a longtime proud and highly respected American public servant,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social. “Jeff and his family were forced to suffer greatly due to the illegal weaponization of our justice system by the radical-left Democrats.”

Fortenberry was accused of lying to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) about his 2016 House of Representatives campaign receiving $30,000 in illegal campaign donations from a foreign national.

The former lawmaker was first indicted in 2021 for the alleged crimes in the Central District of California. Although he was convicted, an appellate court overruled that conviction, finding that he had been charged in an improper venue because he was interviewed by federal agents in Lincoln, Nebraska, and Washington, D.C., but not in California.

That ruling, however, permitted the charges to be refiled in an appropriate court. In May 2024, federal prosecutors refiled the charges in Washington, D.C., which was one of the locations at which he was interviewed by the FBI agents.

In a Jan. 29 post on TruthSocial, Trump said the federal prosecutors “would not leave it alone” when they chose to refile charges and asserted “the charges were totally baseless.”

“That scam is now over, so Jeff and his family can go back to having a great life together and be a part of our country’s future as we MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN,” the president said. “I am very proud of our Department of Justice, something I have not been able to say for many years!”

null / Credit: pim pic/Shutterstock

CNA Staff, Jan 30, 2025 / 15:35 pm (CNA).

Here is a roundup of recent abortion- and pro-life-related news:

Environmental harm of chemical abortions raises concerns  

Legislators in several states are introducing bills restricting abortion pills, citing concerns about water contamination. New legislation in Arizona, Idaho, Maine, West Virginia, and Wyoming would require abortion providers to have their patients collect expelled medical waste from at-home abortions. 

Chemical abortions — which make up about 60% of U.S. abortions — are primarily sefl-induced at home, meaning that any waste is flushed down the toilet, including the blood and placental tissue and fetal remains of the unborn child. Students for Life of America, a pro-life organization, announced its support of “wastewater legislation” on Thursday. 

In a press release by SFLA’s Kristi Hamrick, Hamrick said that abortion drugs “contain dangerous endocrine disruptors, which are making their way into America’s waterways through human remains, despite EPA warnings not to flush drugs, chemicals, and even goldfish.” She noted that “hospitals dispose of placentas carefully as medical waste, and brick-and-mortar abortion vendors are supposed to follow state laws with human remains,” but waste from chemical abortions is not regulated. 

Lawmakers last year called for a study into the environmental impact of the abortion pill. 

Congressman reintroduces bill to federally ban chemical abortions 

More than a dozen House Republicans are pushing for a proposal to ban chemical abortion drugs.  Tennessee Congressman Andy Ogles reintroduced the Ending Chemical Abortions Act of 2025 — a bill he previously introduced in September 2023 — which would block the use of chemical abortions in the United States.

In a Jan. 24 statement, Ogles cited safety concerns surrounding chemical abortions for both women and unborn children. Chemical abortions “not only end a human life but pose a serious risk to the lives of the mothers,” Ogles noted, highlighting an increase in chemical abortion-related ER visits following the FDA decision to eliminate the in-person dispensing requirement. 

The proposal indicated that a woman who receives a chemical abortion may not be criminally prosecuted. It also stipulated that it does not apply to contraception, miscarriage treatment, or life-threatening situations.

Leading pro-lifers shared their support of the bill. Kristan Hawkins, president of Students for Life of America, noted that “the pills are clearly deadly to the preborn and exceptionally harmful to women” and cited environmental concerns surrounding “chemically tainted placenta tissue, blood, and human remains to be flushed into our waterways.”  

Thousands gather to mourn rising Kansas abortions 

Thousands of Kansan pro-lifers rallied at the Kansas statehouse on Wednesday to support pro-life legislation and values, and to mourn the rising number of abortions in the state. 

Led by Kansans for Life, the event highlighted pro-life legislation as well as the mourning of the nearly 20,000 abortions recorded in Kansas in 2023 — a spike from recent years. Kansas abortions have increased as Kansas has become an “abortion destination” state, as neighboring states have stronger pro-life laws; Kansas records show that the number of nonresident abortions nearly doubled from 2022 to 2023. 

The event was preceded by the Kansas Mass for Life, concelebrated by Archbishop Joseph Naumann of Kansas City, Kansas; Bishop Carl Kemme of Wichita; and Bishop Gerald Vincke of Salina. 

Naumann spoke at the event as well as Senate President Ty Masterson, R-Andover, and House Speaker Dan Hawkins, R-Wichita. Hawkins spoke about recent legislative wins in Kansas such as increased funding for the pregnancy compassion awareness programs and pro-life tax credit policies for families to adopt children or for those who donate to pregnancy resource centers and maternity homes. 

Ohio Senate to introduce abolishment of death penalty 

Senators in Ohio announced Tuesday they will reintroduce bipartisan legislation to abolish the death penalty in Ohio, replacing it with a sentence of life without parole for capital crimes. The bill would also ban the use of state funds for abortion as well as for assisted suicide, which is already illegal in Ohio. 

State Sen. Steve Huffman, R-Tipp City, and Senate Democratic Leader Nickie J. Antonio, D-Lakewood, announced in a press conference that they plan to reintroduce the bill. Most Ohioans support the end of the death penalty, a press release by Antonio noted. However, the ACLU Ohio opposed the bill due to its limiting of funds for abortion.

Huffman, a practicing Catholic, said he is “committed to preserving the dignity of all life until natural death.” He cited both fiscal and moral challenges as reasons to abolish capital punishment.

Former English Bishop Richard Williamson. / Credit: Joshuarodri, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons

Vatican City, Jan 30, 2025 / 14:00 pm (CNA).

Bishop Richard Williamson, a former English bishop of the Priestly Society of St. Pius X (SSPX), died on Wednesday at the age of 84 after suffering a cerebral hemorrhage.

The Priestly Society of St. Pius X announced the former bishop’s death Thursday morning on its website. Williamson’s office shared an email with the Catholic Herald stating: “He was surrounded by clerics and faithful who have been keeping vigil with him for his final journey … They were praying right to the end.”

Born in London in 1940, Williamson belonged to the Church of England before being received into the Catholic Church in 1971. Soon after becoming Catholic, he joined the traditionalist Catholic movement founded by Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre and entered the SSPX seminary in Switzerland.

Lefebvre ordained Williamson as a Catholic priest in 1976 and, without the Vatican’s permission, consecrated him and three other priests — Bernard Fellay, Bernard Tissier de Mallerais, and Alfonso de Galarreta — as bishops in 1988.

Subsequently, Lefebvre, Williamson, Fellay, Tissier de Mallerais, and de Galarreta were excommunicated from the Catholic Church following the illicit 1988 ordinations. 

In 2009, Pope Benedict XVI lifted the excommunication of the SSPX members with the hope of reconciliation with the schismatic traditionalist group that strongly opposed Vatican II and liturgical reforms of the Church’s sacraments. 

Williamson’s public denial of the Jewish Holocaust became an additional roadblock to full communion with the Catholic Church as well as a source of deep tension within the SSPX.

Following a 2009 television interview in which Williamson expressed his disbelief that Jews were killed in gas chambers in Nazi extermination camps, the SSPX took action and removed him as head of the society’s seminary in Argentina.  

Williamson was eventually expelled from the society for disobedience in 2012 after conducting confirmations in Brazil without his superior’s permission.  

Prior to his expulsion from the SSPX while carrying out pastoral ministries in South America, Williamson had held teaching positions at the society’s seminaries in the U.S. and in Europe and also served as the society’s second assistant general from 1988–1994. 

“Sadly, his path and that of the society separated many years ago,” the Jan. 30 SSPX statement reads. “We recommend the eternal rest of his soul to your fervent prayers.”

Emergency response units search on Jan. 30, 2025, near the crash site of the American Airlines plane in the Potomac River after the plane crashed on approach to Reagan National Airport in Arlington, Virginia, on Jan. 29. / Credit: Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images

CNA Staff, Jan 30, 2025 / 13:30 pm (CNA).

The archbishops of Washington and Baltimore offered prayers on Thursday after a deadly plane crash near downtown Washington, D.C., claimed dozens of lives on Wednesday night. 

Up to 67 people were feared dead on Thursday after the overnight crash in which American Eagle Flight 5342, which flew in from Wichita, collided with a U.S. Black Hawk helicopter near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport. 

The wreckage of the two aircraft plunged into the Potomac River, where first responders were struggling to recover bodies and debris. 

In a statement on Thursday, Washington archbishop Cardinal Wilton Gregory said Catholics “throughout the Archdiocese of Washington today join men and women of goodwill here and around the world in praying for those who perished” as well as “for their grieving families and loved ones.” 

“We praise God for the generous assistance of our courageous first responders,” the archbishop said. “May this disaster serve as an impetus to strengthen our unity and collaboration.”

Baltimore Archbishop William Lori also offered prayers on Thursday, saying in a statement: “Our hearts go out to those who lost their lives in the tragic collision at Reagan National Airport.” 

“Let us pray for them and for their loved ones who mourn them. Our thoughts and prayers are also with the first responders during this very difficult time,” Lori said. 

The archbishops’ remarks come after Pope Francis also offered prayers and condolences following the crash.

“In commending the souls of the deceased to the loving mercy of Almighty God, I offer my deepest sympathies to the families who are now mourning the loss of a loved one,” the Holy Father said in a telegram to President Donald Trump. 

“I likewise pray for those involved in the recovery efforts and invoke upon all in the nation the divine blessings of consolation and strength,” the pontiff said. 

Wichita Bishop Carl Kemme on Thursday also issued a statement in which he noted that the crashed airliner originally departed from Wichita.

"My heart, and the hearts of the faithful of the Diocese of Wichita, go out to the families and loved ones of all those lost in this devastating accident. We pray for the souls of those who perished, including the brave members of our military, the passengers, and the crew," Kemme said.

"We also pray for comfort and strength for those who mourn, and for the first responders and recovery teams as they continue their difficult work," the prelate added. "I encourage all to pray for those affected by this tragedy. May the souls of the departed rest in peace."

Arlington, Virginia, Bishop Michael Burbidge also offered his condolences in a post on X. The seat of the Arlington Diocese is located just a few miles from the D.C. airport.

“May we be united in prayer for all those tragically impacted by the accident near Reagan airport. We ask God to embrace them in his love; to grant strength to their families; and to watch over all first responders,” Burbidge said.

This story was updated on Thursday, Jan. 30, at 2:20 p.m. with a statement from Wichita Bishop Carl Kemme

Orthodox Archbishop Anastasios Yannoulatos of Albania, 95, died on Jan. 25, 2025, in Greece due to a recent illness. He led the Albanian Orthodox church for nearly 33 years. / Credit: Υπουργείο Εξωτερικών, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Vatican City, Jan 30, 2025 / 12:15 pm (CNA).

Pope Francis sent his condolences to the Orthodox Church in Albania on Monday following the recent death of Archbishop Anastasios Yannoulatos, who led that church for nearly 33 years. 

Praising Anastasios for his “profound dedication to the Gospel,” the Holy Father expressed his fraternal esteem for the 95-year-old prelate who helped revive Christianity in the former communist country and who died on Jan. 25.

“The faith of the Orthodox community of Albania was certainly embodied in the life of our dear brother, whose zealous pastoral service helped the people rediscover its richness and beauty following the years of state-imposed atheism and persecution,” the pope said in his Jan. 27 message. 

Anastasios, who died on the feast of the conversion of St. Paul, was widely respected by Francis and other religious leaders for his decades-long ministry dedicated to peace and ecumenical dialogue with other churches and religions in Greece, Africa, and Albania.  

“He did so by following the example of St. Paul, who dedicated himself so much to Christ that he could say, ‘I have become all things to all people, that I might by all means save some’ (1 Cor 9:22),” the Holy Father said. 

Recalling his first meeting with Anastasios during his apostolic journey to Albania in 2014, the 88-year-old pope said he cherished “the fraternal embrace and words exchanged on that occasion” and was impressed by the Orthodox leader’s love for the country’s poor and suffering.  

“Now that his earthly life has come to an end, I pray that, through the mercy of God the Almighty Father, His Beatitude may eternally praise the Blessed Trinity, together with all the confessors of the faith and the pastors who have proclaimed the word of salvation to peoples everywhere and at all times,” the pope wrote at the end of his message.

Emergency response units search the wreckage on Jan. 30, 2025, of an American Airlines plane on the Potomac River after it crashed on approach to Reagan National Airport the night before. The American Airlines flight from Wichita, Kansas, collided midair with a military Black Hawk helicopter while on approach to Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport. According to reports, there were no survivors among the 67 people on both aircraft. / Credit: Alex Wong/Getty Images

Vatican City, Jan 30, 2025 / 11:15 am (CNA).

Pope Francis extended his condolences after an American Airlines jet carrying 64 people collided with a U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter near Washington, D.C.’s Ronald Reagan National Airport on Wednesday night.

The pope sent a personal message to President Donald Trump on Jan. 30 as search efforts continued in and around the Potomac River where the aircraft crashed. Officials indicated on Thursday morning that they did not believe there were any survivors.

“After learning of the mid-air collision near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, I express my spiritual closeness to all those affected by this tragedy,” the pope said.

“In commending the souls of the deceased to the loving mercy of Almighty God, I offer my deepest sympathies to the families who are now mourning the loss of a loved one. I likewise pray for those involved in the recovery efforts and invoke upon all in the nation the divine blessings of consolation and strength.”

Pope Francis chose to sign the message personally, departing from the usual protocol of sending it via the Vatican secretary of state.

The collision occurred around 9 p.m. on Jan. 29 as American Eagle Flight 5342 en route from Wichita, Kansas, was approaching Reagan National Airport. 

The jet was carrying 60 passengers and four crew members. The military helicopter was on a training mission with three soldiers on board. 

Emergency response teams have recovered at least 28 bodies from the Potomac River, where wreckage from both aircraft was found. With all passengers feared dead, the accident is likely the deadliest plane crash in the U.S. in more than 20 years. 

Passengers on the flight included a group of figure skaters, coaches, and their family members  returning from the U.S. Figure Skating Championships in Wichita, according to the U.S. Figure Skating association. 

Russian former world ice skating champions Yevgenia Shishkova and Vadim Naumov were among those on board, according to Russian state media.

The Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board have launched an investigation to determine the cause of the collision. Preliminary reports suggest that the helicopter crew was aware of the approaching jetliner, as indicated by radio communications with air traffic control, according to Reuters. The Pentagon has also initiated its own inquiry into the incident.

Bishop Michael Burbidge, the bishop of nearby Arlington, Virginia, also offered his condolences in a post on the social media platform X.

“May we be united in prayer for all those tragically impacted by the accident near Reagan airport. We ask God to embrace them in his love; to grant strength to their families; and to watch over all first responders,” the bishop said.