August 24, 2023

A daily news briefing from Catholic News Agency, powered by artificial intelligence. Ask your smart speaker to play “Catholic News,” or listen every morning wherever you get podcasts. www.catholicnewsagency.com - Our Lady of Guadalupe proclaimed the Gospel in “mother tongue,” Pope Francis said Wednesday in a message that highlighted the important role mothers play in passing on the faith to the next generation. In his catechesis on evangelization on August 23, the pope spoke about how the apparition of Our Lady of Guadalupe in 1531 helped to spread the Gospel across the Americas, praising her as an inspired model of motherhood and inculturation. Pope Francis said the Virgin Mary always “consoles us, makes us go forward and thus allows us to grow, like a good mother who, while following in her son’s steps, launches him into the world’s challenges.” Pope Francis underscored the importance of Marian shrines and pilgrimage destinations, like the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe, as places where the Gospel continues to be proclaimed today. https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/255164/pope-francis-like-our-lady-of-guadalupe-mothers-can-be-great-evangelizers-today South Carolina’s Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that a law protecting unborn babies with detectable heartbeats from abortion is constitutional and can go into effect. The ruling ended a circuit court’s injunction that had temporarily blocked the Fetal Heartbeat and Protection from Abortion Act, which was signed by Republican Governor Henry McMaster in May. Planned Parenthood and Greenville Women’s Clinic had requested the injunction, claiming the law violates constitutional rights to privacy, equal protection, and substantive due process. The 4-1 ruling is a victory for pro-life legislators in the state, which passed a similar law in 2021. That law was blocked more than a year later and struck down by the state Supreme Court in January of this year. https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/255168/south-carolina-supreme-court-upholds-heartbeat-abortion-ba