October 25, 2021

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 - Pope Francis made an appeal for migrants Sunday, calling on the international community to stop deporting migrants to unsafe countries. Speaking from the window of the Apostolic Palace, the pope asked the Catholic pilgrims gathered in St. Peter’s Square to pray in silence for migrants, many of whom he said had been subjected to “inhumane violence.” https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/249387/pope-francis-appeals-that-migrants-not-be-sent-back-to-unsafe-countries On Monday, Pope Francis appointed economist Jeffrey Sachs to the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences. Sachs, the director of the Center for Sustainable Development at Columbia University in New York, has been a frequent visitor to the Vatican in recent years. Sachs has in the past advocated for a reduction in fertility rates in developing countries through the dissemination of contraception, a view at odds with Catholic teaching. https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/249389/pope-francis-names-jeffrey-sachs-to-pontifical-academy Catholics are praying following the execution of Willie B. Smith III on Thursday evening, the first execution in Alabama since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Smith was sentenced to death in 1992 for the murder of a 22-year-old woman. His attorneys have argued that Smith was borderline intellectually disabled. The Catholic Mobilizing Network said they were praying for the repose of Willie Smith’s soul, and the diocese of Birmingham stated that, quote, “capital punishment devalues human life and contributes to a climate of violence in our communities." https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/249376/catholics-pray-after-alabama-executes-death-row-inmate After seven hours of debate and notable opposition in the House of Lords on Friday, the sponsor of a bill that would legalize assisted suicide in