November 9, 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 - The Vatican’s doctrine office has said an adult who identifies as transgender can receive the sacrament of baptism under the same conditions as any adult, as long as there is no risk of causing scandal or confusion to other Catholics. The Vatican also said that children or adolescents experiencing transgender identity issues may also receive baptism “if well prepared and willing.” The Vatican also responded to questions about whether transgender-identifying people or those in homosexual relationships can be godparents or witness a marriage, and whether children adopted or born through assisted reproduction to same-sex couples can be baptized. For a full explanation of what the Vatican said, visit catholic news agency dot com. https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/255945/vatican-doctrine-office-transgender-identifying-people-can-be-baptized The attorney general of Missouri announced this week a lawsuit against the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) over the agency’s approval of shipping abortion drugs through the mail. Republican State Attorney General Andrew Bailey announced the filing on his website on Monday, claiming that the FDA had “unlawfully approved the shipment of chemical abortion pills in the mail.” The Missouri lawsuit includes a request for an injunction against rules from 2021 and 2023 “allowing abortion drugs to be sent by mail.” The FDA “failed America’s women and girls when it chose politics over science and approved risky, untested chemical abortion drugs for use in the United States,” the lawsuit argues, claiming further that the agency “has continued to fail them by turning a blind eye to these harms and repeatedly removing even the most basic precautionary requirements associated with the use of these risky drugs.” President Joe Biden had earlier in the year issued a memo