February 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 - Pope Francis addressed once again the question of whether he will resign the papacy in two conversations with Jesuit priests in Africa this month, saying he believes a Pope’s ministry is for life. The pope, repeating information he had revealed in a prior interview, said that he signed a resignation letter two months after his election as pope in case he should become incapacitated. He mentioned again the letter he signed in case his health should deteriorate to a point he could not resign and pointed to the resignation letter Venerable Pope Pius XII prepared in case he should be kidnapped by Hitler. https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/253663/pope-francis-i-believe-that-the-pope-s-ministry-is-for-life Two UK Catholics, one of whom is a priest, were acquitted Thursday of all charges against them after they were accused of breaking the law for praying in front of an abortion clinic. Both Father Sean Gough — a priest of the Archdiocese of Birmingham — and Isabel Vaughan-Spruce, co-director of March for Life UK, were charged with violating a local Public Spaces Protection Order that censors speech in the area around a Birmingham abortion clinic. Gough said he stood near a closed abortion clinic on Station Road in Birmingham with a sign that said “praying for free speech.” Officials criminally charged him with “intimidating service users” of the abortion clinic. He faced a second charge related to an “unborn lives matter” sticker on his parked car. The charges against both Gough and Vaughan-Spruce were eventually dropped because of insufficient evidence against them. https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/253665/two-uk-catholics-acquitted-after-being-charged-for-praying-in-front-of-abortion-clinic Today, the Church celebrates the Seven Founders of the Order of Servites. These seven men were born