Pro-Life Group Slams DOJ, South Sudan Escalation, Challenger Disaster at 40, and More

Gina Christian of OSV News catches you up on the Catholic news of the day for Jan. 29, 2026. Tune in and visit us online at osvnews.com.

Read the stories in this episode:

• A key national pro-life group has accused the Department of Justice of undermining Louisiana's efforts to roll back the Biden administration's eased restrictions on mifepristone when it asked a court Jan. 27 to pause the Pelican State's challenge to that policy. 
• Cardinal Rainer Maria Woelki of Cologne said he is finished with the German Synodal Way and will not attend its sixth assembly, opening Jan. 29. 
• Catholic bishops in South Sudan are warning that the country is edging back toward full-scale war, as fighting intensifies and political tensions rise.
• Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernández, prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, opened the dicastery's Jan. 27–29 plenary with a strong call for humility in thought, theology and online discourse. 
• A Houston-area Catholic school science teacher said the Challenger disaster remains one of the most defining moments of her early understanding of science and human exploration, shaping both her worldview and her vocation as an educator.