August 17, 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 5th Circuit Court of Appeals approved additional abortion pill restrictions, including ending mail-order abortions, in a Wednesday ruling in the high-stakes abortion case Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine v Food and Drug Administration. The court did not disapprove all use of abortion pills but rather ruled that the FDA must reinstate restrictions in place before 2016, most notably banning administering the pills through the mail or via telemedicine. Because of this finding, variations of the most commonly used abortion pill, such as Mifeprex and generic mifepristone, “will remain available under the safety restrictions that were in effect prior to 2016.” Once reviewed and certified by the Supreme Court, the ruling will mandate that the FDA restore its original regulations in place in 2000. This means that the mifepristone approval will be capped at seven weeks, rather than 10, and require at least three in-person doctor visits to administer the drug. Stay tuned to catholic news agency dot com for the latest on this story. https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/255106/breaking-5th-circuit-court-approves-abortion-pill-restrictions-ends-mail-order-abortions Pope Francis this week merged the Diocese of Takamatsu with the Metropolitan Archdiocese of Osaka in Japan. Cardinal Thomas Aquino Manyo Maeda, archbishop of Osaka since 2014, was named on August 15 as the first archbishop of the new Archdiocese of Osaka-Takamatsu. The last bishop of the Diocese of Takamatsu, John Eijiro Suwa, died in 2022. The two territories are on different islands: Takamatsu is on Japan’s Shikoku Island while Osaka is on Honshu. They are connected by water through the Osaka Bay and Seto Inland Sea or by land by crossing Awaji Island, already part of the territory of the former Archdiocese of Osaka. The new archdiocese ha