Washington Attorney General Nick Brown’s office alleged in a complaint that Providence regularly refused accommodations or failed to implement accommodations such as limited lifting or more frequent sitting for pregnant and nursing mothers.

The complaint also alleges that some superiors retaliated against employees after they requested accommodations.

The lawsuit said this violates the state’s Healthy Starts Act and the Washington Law Against Discrimination.

Pennsylvania attorney general appeals lower court ruling

Pennsylvania Attorney General Dave Sunday is looking to overturn a court ruling that struck down a law preventing the state from funding abortion.

Sunday appealed the lower court’s ruling, which struck down the state’s ban on Medicaid coverage for abortion in an ongoing case that began in 2019 when abortion providers brought a suit against the state’s abortion funding ban.

The attorney general said he had a “statutory obligation to defend the commonwealthʼs laws.”

“My responsibility as attorney general is to defend the rule of law and defend statutes without interference of personal opinion or political posturing,” Sunday said in a statement to EWTN News.

Maine senator absent from abortion-related committee meetings, records show

Maine U.S. Sen. Susan Collins, a Republican, has not attended abortion-related Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee meetings since the overturn of Roe v. Wade in 2022, according to committee hearing reports.

Collins confirmed the appointment of Justice Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court in 2018, saying at the time that she thought he wouldn’t be a part of overturning Roe v. Wade.

Her office did not respond to a request for comment from EWTN News.

Shane and Jennifer DeGross, a Christian couple who served as licensed foster parents in Washington state for nine years, sued the state in 2024 for religious discrimination. The state had declined to renew their foster license in 2022 because of their sincerely held Christian beliefs that God created the human body as either male or female, and that this biological sex is immutable.

The DeGrosses objected to the state’s policy requiring foster parents to affirm a child’s gender identity, including using pronouns that do not align with the child’s sex and supporting social or medical transitioning.

The state decided to settle this week after a key federal court ruling in April denied Washington’s motion to dismiss the case with respect to the DeGrosses’ First Amendment claims to the free exercise of religion and free speech, allowing the lawsuit to proceed.

During the nine years they served as foster parents, the couple cared for multiple children and were described by their licensing agency as exemplary foster parents, according to Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), the religious freedom law group representing the couple.

As part of the settlement reached on May 20, Washington’s Department of Children, Youth, and Families (DCYF) will change its licensing policies to respect all religious families’ deeply held convictions and won’t “attach any conditions or restrictions to the license solely because of their religious beliefs, including speech and actions pertaining to marriage, gender, or sexual relationships.” State officials also agreed to pay $250,000 in attorneys’ fees.

“When children are sleeping on cots in child-welfare offices for lack of loving homes, states like Washington should be doing everything they can to bring in more qualified foster parents,” said Johannes Widmalm-Delphonse, ADF senior counsel, when the federal court issued its decision in April.

The federal district court cited another ADF case in its April opinion, Bates v. Pakseresht, where ADF had successfully challenged a similar law in Oregon on behalf of a Christian mother, Jessica Bates.

In 2023, Bates challenged the department rule that required those seeking to become adoptive or foster parents must agree to “respect, accept, and support the … sexual orientation, gender identity, [and] gender expression … of a child or young adult” who is placed in the home.

In 2025, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit ordered that the Oregon Department of Human Services must allow Bates to begin the process of adopting two children without first making her comply with the stateʼs gender identity affirmation policy.

According to a statement from ADF, the appeals court ruled that Oregon’s policy “engaged in viewpoint discrimination and violated Bates’ free speech and free exercise of religion. The Washington district court saw the same issues in how the state’s policy violated the DeGrosses’ constitutional rights.”

The settlement permanently resolves the dispute and requires DCYF to stop imposing viewpoint-based restrictions on religious foster parents.

In honor of the nation’s 250th anniversary, the pilgrimage will begin in Florida, where the first recorded Catholic Mass within the future continental United States was celebrated, highlighting the country’s Catholic roots.

“We have to return to one nation under God, and I think that by beginning this pilgrimage at St. Augustine, weʼre returning to one of the major start points for Catholicism,” Jeffrey Bruno, a photojournalist and contributor to the National Catholic Register, the sister partner of EWTN News, said in an interview with Register Radio.

“If we do return to that as a nation, we really will be a nation filled with hope and with promise,” he said.

The launch of the pilgrimage will include remarks from Jason Shanks, president of the National Eucharistic Congress. He will also be joined by Bishop Erik Pohlmeier of St. Augustine and the nine perpetual pilgrims who will travel the entirety of the pilgrimage, which spans more than 2,000 miles.

The 250th anniversary coinciding with the pilgrimage is “perfect,” said Bruno, who has photographed past Eucharistic pilgrimages and the Eucharistic congress. “Hopefully itʼs going to be a new start, a fresh start“ and ”the next 250 will be really happy and holy, I pray.”

The pilgrimage will pass through most of the original 13 colonies. Pilgrims will travel the Eastern Seaboard along the Cabrini Route in honor of St. Frances Xavier Cabrini, the first U.S. citizen to be canonized.

The group will stop in Baltimore, which is the U.S. Catholic Church’s “foundation,” as it houses “the first cathedral” and “was the first diocese" in the nation, Bruno said.

Pilgrims also will travel through Colonial Williamsburg, the immersive restoration of Virginia’s 18th‑century capital, where “American culture ... meets Catholic culture,” he said.

“American Catholic culture has had such an incredible impact on this country,” he said. “Catholicism is so interwoven into the fabric of the United States. Mother Cabrini is the perfect example of that too, with all the accomplishments, all the hospitals and institutions that she founded over all the years.”

“Healthcare, education, all these different things, itʼs like they can all find their roots back in … Catholicism” and its “contributions to this country,” he said.

“I just hope [and] I pray that the contributions moving forward will be even more intense," Bruno said.

The pilgrimage will conclude on July 5 in Philadelphia.

Graces of the Blessed Sacrament

As the Eucharist travels from state to state, it will offer needed “grace” to believers and nonbelievers alike, Bruno said. 

In his past experience on the pilgrimages, he said “seeing the impact of the Blessed Sacrament” and “passing through the highways and the byways has been the privilege of a lifetime.”

“The grace that comes from these pilgrimages, from these processions, from the processions with the Blessed Sacrament, and the witness of the pilgrims and the people that turn out to join in the local parishes … itʼs breathtaking. Itʼs incredible,” he said.

Bruno said “the efficacy of grace” is just like a quotation attributed to the inspiration of St. Carlo Acutis: “People who put themselves before the sun get a tan; people who place themselves before the Eucharist become saints."

“I think that bringing the Blessed Sacrament” and “crossing all these different towns and places and exposing people — believers, nonbelievers, people that are hurt, people that are broken — to his grace ... [has] an efficacy that can’t be understated,” he said.

“Itʼs something that I think the country has missed for a long period of time. And Iʼm super glad that this is happening now,” Bruno said. “You see the hunger is out there.”

“Everybody needs him” and “heʼs present, heʼs available,” Bruno said. “The grace is there.”

“Current federal investments in housing programs do not meet the great need we see in our country,” Archbishop Shelton Fabre of Louisville, Kentucky; Catholic Charities USA CEO Kerry Alys Robinson; and National Council of the U.S. Society of St. Vincent de Paul President John Berry said in a May 21 joint letter to Congress. “Ultimately, we urge you to provide the highest level of funding possible for housing and community development programs serving families and individuals who are poor and vulnerable.”

Fabre serves as chair of the bishops' Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development.

The letter comes amid proposed cuts to federal funding for housing programs from $84.2 billion to $73.5 billion for fiscal 2027.

Citing the most recent data from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) in 2024, the letter pointed out that homelessness is at its “highest recorded levels for both individuals and also families with children.”

HUD has yet to release legally-required data for 2025.

The letter also cited data from 2025 showing that more families and individuals than ever before are spending more than 30% of their income on housing and that “only 1 out of every 4 income-eligible households receives housing assistance.”

The letter specifically called for “robust funding” for a wide range of programs, including Section 8 housing, housing programs for the elderly, the HOME Investment Partnership Program, homelessness assistance grants through the Continuum of Care Program, and housing counseling centers.

The letter called for protections for faith-based shelters and organizations, “to enable these groups to continue to serve people in need without forcing them to violate their beliefs or compromise the safety of their clients.”

“The Catholic Church, through all its ministries, is one of the largest private providers of housing services for poor and vulnerable people in the country,” the letter said. “We serve as many as we can; however, we lack the resources to assist all our brothers and sisters in need.”

The letter noted that in 2025 despite providing over 196,000 people access to housing and offering homeless-related services to over 719,000 individuals, the Catholic Charities network has 73,000 families on waiting lists for housing. 

“Considering such widespread, unmet need, it is clear that the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) needs more resources,” the letter said.

On May 17, thousands gathered on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., for the White House event celebrating “one nation under God” and "the connection between religion and our American democracy,”  Barron said.

In an interview with EWTN News’ Colm Flynn ahead of the event, Barron discussed the “hugely important” phrase "one nation under God.”

“In the written versions of the Gettysburg Address that [Abraham Lincoln] prepared before giving it, the phrase ‘under God’ is not there,” Barron explained.

“But then when he was delivering it he added ... ‘under God,’“ Barron said. ”I think it represented a deep intuition that Lincoln had that you canʼt really understand our democracy without it.”

The phrase “under God” is “meant to hold off tyranny,” he said. It is clear that “all kings and all rulers are under God, meaning under the judgment and authority of God. Our founders understood that.”

“And that little phrase is meant to hold off that tendency to deify any political establishment, political party, political ruler. Weʼre a nation, yes indeed, but weʼre under God. Our laws are determined by God,” he said.

“I love the First Amendment to our Constitution, which in its opening lines expresses very eloquently … the right balance,“ he said. ”Namely, ‘Congress shall make no law respecting the establishment of religion.’”

“But then thereʼs a second part, the second clause of that: ‘Congress shall make no law limiting the free exercise of religion,’” he said.

“Thatʼs an eloquent balance. So thereʼs no officially state-sanctioned religion, but that does not mean that religion has no role in public life. On the contrary, because there should be no law restricting the free exercise of religion,” Barron said.

Catholics’ role in public life and public office

Catholics in public office should bring “moral sensibility into their public decisions,” Barron said.

“Weʼre not here to impose Catholicism on anybody,” he said. “But I think to bring a moral and spiritual sensibility into the decisions that you make at these high levels is altogether valid.”

As a member of the White House Religious Liberty Commission, Barron said he met “lots of Catholics in the present administration” and told them to “bring Thomas Aquinas into your public life.”

“By which I mean bring these great moral and spiritual principles that indeed undergird our democracy, but make them a lively presence in the work that you do,” he said.

Barron further spoke about his time on the White House commission, where he received both criticism and praise.

When asked to be a commissioner, “my first reaction was very positive,” Barron said. “I thought … ‘Theyʼre inviting a Catholic bishop to be a voice around the table in the formulation of this policy. Why would I say no?’”

To say no would be “taking a Catholic voice away from that process,” he said.

“I’m not implementing the policy. Iʼm making suggestions regarding the formulation of policy,” Barron explained. “The president could take or leave what we say … So Iʼm not implementing the presidentʼs policies. Iʼm helping to shape public policy.”

“The commission was great. I spoke my mind in every setting. No one censored me,” said Barron, who was present at a White House Holy Week event when Pentecostal pastor Paula Cain White compared the president’s suffering to Jesus Christ’s.

Barron said he was able to address issues within the administration, specifically about Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) “detainees in Chicago having access to sacraments and pastoral care.”

The bishop took the matter to Homeland Security and “no one questioned” him. It was “a religious liberty issue,” because “people have a right to their sacraments and pastoral care,” he said.

Barron also spoke out in regard to the president’s “critical remarks about the pope.”

“I said in an X post that I have deep admiration for the president in regard to religion. Heʼs done wonderful things. But I said I think that was a disrespectful way to talk to the pope,” Barron said.

“In regards to prudential judgment,” a president can “disagree with the pope,” Barron said. “But the pope is not ... just an ordinary hack politician that you can sort of talk in that flippant way to.”

“Heʼs the vicar of Christ, successor of Peter. Heʼs our Holy Father. And I just felt that was disrespectful, and I thought it was not a constructive contribution to the conversation,” he said.

“Heʼs the Holy Father, so we have a filial relationship to him. Heʼs a father, weʼre like children … we have a family relationship to the pope. So itʼs different than just our relationship to a political leader.”

“At the level of principle and the moral values that ought to be informing our life … we abide by what the pope is saying, but I think there can be disagreement at the prudential level,” Barron said.

Dividing issues in the nation today

Amid numerous wars right now, Barron said “we should study” the just war tradition.

It offers “very useful criteria, and I think the Churchʼs job is to bring these to consciousness and urge political leaders to apply them,” he said.

“The Catechism of the Catholic Church says that when it comes to the evaluation and application of the criteria, that belongs to the civil authorities. And I think thereʼs great wisdom there too.”

Barron also spoke to the ongoing matters with U.S. immigration enforcement.

“A completely open border invites a lot of moral chaos, and a lot of catastrophe happens because of an open border. So the Church recognizes the legitimacy of that,” Barron said. “At the same time, the Church wants us to welcome the stranger and to be open to those who are in great need and those who are seeking refuge.”

ICE “is a very legitimate expression of the governmentʼs authority, but … I think ICE is way too blunt a tool to use to solve the general issue of people in the country illegally,” Barron said.

“I think a political solution has to be found. I donʼt think ICE is the right instrument to do that,” he said. “Iʼd invite people who are intimately involved in these things to have a good, morally informed conversation about it and come to good prudential judgments.”

“Iʼm not an expert in immigration policy, and Iʼm not an expert in the economics that are prevailing on the ground in various situations,” he said. “I think we have to inform all those who are making those decisions, make sure they have a keen moral sensibility, [and] know what the principles are.”

“But I think people of goodwill can, and obviously do, disagree about how they are applied … concretely,” he said.

“We’re anxious to get them to visit this,” Luz Tavarez, vice president for government relations at Catholic Charities USA (CCUSA), told EWTN News. Tavarez was among 21 diocesan officials who participated in CCUSA’s annual “Hill Day” on May 19-20 to lobby Congress on housing, food insecurities, and other poverty-related issues.

CCUSA’s mobile museum is scheduled to be parked on the National Mall in front of the Capitol through May 22.

“Whatʼs really amazing about the People of Hope Museum is that itʼs a firsthand account of how we see Jesus in the people we serve,” she said. “So, I really hope that they do get down here. We have invited every single one of them to come, so weʼll see.”

The group met with about 60 offices, Tavarez said, including members of the House and Senate.

Four members addressed CCUSA, including Rep. Jim McGovern, D-Massachusetts, Rep. James Clyburn, D-South Carolina, Rep. Mike Lawler, R-New York, and Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine.

“All of those members challenged us to just continue to hit the ground educating members of the important work that we do,” Tavarez said. “I think thereʼs a recognition on both sides of the aisle of how critical the work that Catholic Charities around the country, the work that we do, is. But again, our goal was just really to ensure that government funding, government appropriations, is reaching the most vulnerable.”

Tavarez highlighted the recently-passed farm bill and housing issues as areas where they found bipartisan support among members. She said the group did not experience much pushback but that the challenge lay in educating members “on how our Catholic faith is translated into the policy positions we take, and thatʼs just consistent on both sides of the aisle.”

The lobbying day came a week after Democratic senators pressed Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Scott Turner over missing data on homelessness and the Trump administration’s planned cuts to federal funding for homelessness.

“Itʼs important to understand that not everyone understands the work that we do,” she said. “And for some people, Catholic Charities means just one thing, you know, perhaps itʼs working with immigrants. For other people, Catholic Charities is just the local food pantries. And there is some intersection there.”

“What is beautiful about ‘Hill Day’ in my view is that Catholic Charities, of course, is not a political or partisan entity,” CCUSA CEO Kerry Alys Robinson told EWTN News. “It is a social ministry of the Church, and it encompasses the full political spectrum.”

“Elected officials across the aisle all understand just how important Catholic Charities is to their constituents in their districts and in their states,” she said. “So I think judging from all reports, the meetings went very, very well, and our diocesan directors are especially happy to be here.”

The grant, awarded to the Jesuit university on May 19, is part of the Aspen Institute’s Trust in Practice Award grants, which are sponsored by the insurance company Allstate. Loyola is one of 11 recipients of the grant.

According to a news release by Loyola, the grant will establish a program called “Rooted in Trust,” which will build on its York Road Community Day program. Its stated goal is to build trust across racial, generational, and socioeconomic divides.

The grant funds a two-year project through April 2028 that begins with several months of community dialogue and listening sessions between people from the east side and from the west side of York Road in North Baltimore, which the news release said was historically divided.

The west side of the divide has a higher white population and higher income, while the east side has a higher Black population and lower income, which is rooted in 1930s efforts to segregate the communities, according to a 2020 article in The Johns Hopkins Newsletter.

According to the Loyola news release, the dialogue sessions will help develop a plan for five greening and public space activation community projects. It’s not yet clear what the specific projects will be.

Each project will have one co-lead from the west side and one from the east side. The project site will have signs that explain the history and the culture of the area.

“The Rooted in Trust Program will start with community dialogues in order to understand how historic divides have shaped relationships, access, and use of space,” said Gia Grier McGinnis, Loyola executive director of the neighborhood resilience and community engagement.

“Then, through intergenerational environmental stewardship and placemaking activities, we hope deeper connections can form — both among people who might not otherwise interact and with spaces they reimagine together,” she said. “We are honored that the Aspen Institute and Allstate have given us this incredible opportunity, and we look forward to sharing what we learn with others across Baltimore and across the country.”

Loyola will lead the program that will include three other partners: the Govans-Boundary United Methodist Church; the York Road Partnership, which has more than 30 member organizations; and the York Road Improvement District.

“Rooted in Trust builds upon Loyola’s long-standing, place-based community development efforts in the Greater Govans and York Road corridor neighborhoods, which emphasize community-university collaboration and partnership,” Deb Cady Melzer, Loyola vice president of student development, said in a statement.

“We are incredibly grateful to the Aspen Institute and Allstate for this transformational award, which empowers Loyola and our neighbors to continue this important work,” she said.

The Aspen Institute launched the Trust in Practice Awards initiative in October 2025 with a $5 million donation from Allstate. According to a news release, the initiative is to fund community organizations that support civic engagement, volunteering, and bridging differences with intergenerational participants.

“In today’s interconnected world, trust among people is a key part of what strengthens our communities and country,” Dan Porterfield, Aspen Institute president and CEO, said in a statement at the time.

“The Trust in Practice Awards are an example of our joint commitment to building and sustaining trust across communities and among individuals of all backgrounds and beliefs,” he said. “We are grateful to Allstate for their leadership and partnership in this important effort.”

It was launched in response to Allstate research that found 41% of people said they generally trust other Americans.

“The world beyond Villanova is waiting for you, sometimes with open arms, and sometimes with truly dangerous intent. You will have the challenge and the opportunity to make a big difference, if you carry with you those Augustinian values of veritas, unitas, caritas,” Leo, a graduate of the Class of 1977, said in a written message read at Villanova’s May 19 commencement ceremony.

“This being the 250th anniversary of the United States of America, I would invite you to recall in a special way the guiding principles of the foundations of our nation: ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all [people] are created equal; that they are endowed by our Creator with certain inalienable rights, and among those are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness,’” the pope said.

“May the graduates of 2026 always be faithful to the guiding light that has been so important for these 250 years,” Leo said. “Congratulations, and please know that I send all of you my apostolic blessing.”

Benedictine College condemns antisemitic leaflet, promises disciplinary action

Benedictine College in Atchison, Kansas, condemned the distribution of antisemitic leaflets across its campus in late April following a conference on Nostra Aetate, the Vatican II document on non-Christian religions, hosted by the Coalition of Catholics Against Antisemitism.

The flyer was distributed by a group called “Coalition of Catholics Against Jewish Supremacy” and accused Benedictine College theology professor Matthew Ramage of “blasphemy.”

“The college is proud that our students took the initiative to remove these anonymous flyers from cars in campus parking lots, and we are also proud that our student groups were the first to respond to the attacks,” the college said in a statement, praising the Latin Mass Society for speaking out and expressing “its disgust and utter disappointment at the content” of the leaflet.

“Questions are now being raised about repercussions,” the college said. “Any student who is found to be involved in conduct that violates the Student Code of Conduct is subject to the college’s student disciplinary procedures, but this process is confidential to protect students.”

Liberty University student challenges Supreme Court on taxpayer funding for religious studies

Liberty University student Bethany Hall is challenging a decades-old Supreme Court precedent limiting the use of taxpayer-funded scholarships for students in religious studies programs.

Hall is suing Virginia officials for blocking her from using a $5,000 per year scholarship she received through the Virginia Tuition Assistance Grant program to pay for her degree in youth ministries, considered a vocational religious degree. Majors that “prepare individuals for the professional practice of religious vocations” disqualify students from receiving the public funds, according to the state program.

After a panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against her on May 13, Hall’s case is one step closer to the Supreme Court, according to a May 19 report. 

“It’s just quite simply wrong and very sad that our Supreme Court made that decision back then,” Hall said. “Because whether you agree with Christianity or a different religion or not, it’s not up to the court to determine if I get to receive a scholarship paid for by taxpayer dollars.”

Canadian university launches ‘Pope Francis Institute’

St. Jerome’s University in Ontario, Canada, announced it is opening an institute dedicated to the legacy of Pope Francis.

“To honor Pope Francis on the first anniversary of his death, St. Jerome’s University is announcing the creation of a new hub for learning, dialogue, and leadership formation,” the university said in a press release. “The Pope Francis Institute will be the world’s first initiative of its kind dedicated to advancing the legacy of the late pontiff.”

The Pope Francis Institute will officially launch with a public event sometime during the 2026-2027 academic year, according to the release.

The institute will host programs “rooted in the spirituality of Francis and the educational tradition of his Jesuit order,” including public lectures, retreats, professional development, and research.

The award, an international distinction bestowed by the Path to Peace Foundation, was presented May 18 in New York to Supreme Knight Patrick E. Kelly during the traditional Path to Peace gala dinner, organized in support of the work of the Permanent Observer Mission of the Holy See to the United Nations and various urgent humanitarian causes.

The award was presented by the apostolic nuncio to the United States, Archbishop Gabriele G. Caccia, president of the foundation and permanent observer of the Holy See to the U.N.

The Knights of Columbus, considered the worldʼs foremost Catholic lay organization for men, carries out initiatives involving charity, humanitarian aid, formation, and support for families in various countries.

The organization states that its mission is to help Catholic men live out their faith and serve their families, parishes, communities, and nations.

“On behalf of more than 2.2 million Knights of Columbus worldwide, it is an incredible honor to accept the Path to Peace Award,” Kelly said during the ceremony.

The organization’s leader recalled that Blessed Michael McGivney founded the Knights more than 140 years ago “upon the pillars of charity, unity, and fraternity.”

“Today, we are proud to continue this mission throughout the world in our parishes and communities, and in nations facing the devastating impacts of war and religious intolerance. We pray that our efforts help bring peace and alleviate suffering, bearing witness to the hope that comes from Jesus Christ,” Kelly stated.

An award linked to the diplomacy of the Holy See

The significance of this recognition is closely linked to the diplomatic and humanitarian mission of the Holy See at the U.N.

The Permanent Observer Mission of the Holy See to the U.N. was officially established on April 6, 1964, and has since played an active role in promoting peace, justice, human rights, and the social doctrine of the Church within the international community.

As the Path to Peace Foundation explains, the foundation was established with the aim of expanding humanitarian and reconciliation activities beyond the strictly diplomatic sphere, promoting the Catholic Churchʼs message of peace and the popeʼs teachings on morality, development, and human rights.

Its key initiatives include international seminars on social encyclicals, cultural activities at the U.N., humanitarian projects for refugees and the sick, and the dissemination of documents related to the diplomacy of the Holy See.

Recognition of international leaders

The Path to Peace Award has been presented since 1993 to individuals and institutions whose lives and work have contributed significantly to the well-being of the international community.

Recipients include former U.N. Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali; Corazon Aquino, former president of the Philippines; Lech Wałęsa, former trade union leader and president of Poland; King Abdullah II along with Queen Rania Al Abdullah, reigning Jordanian monarchs; and current U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres.

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News. It has been translated and adapted by EWTN News English.

His death was announced by the Archdiocese of Baltimore in the archdiocesan newspaper, Catholic Review. Ricard passed away at St. Josephʼs Seminary in Washington, D.C., according to the archdiocese.

“Bishop John Ricard’s death is a profound loss for our local Church and for the entire Catholic community in the United States,” Baltimore Archbishop William Lori said in the announcement.

Lori said Ricard, a former auxiliary bishop in Baltimore, "served this archdiocese with grace, humility, and a joyful spirit that made him beloved by all who encountered him.”

Born in Baton Rogue, Louisiana, on Feb. 29, 1940, as one of eight children, Ricard attended Epiphany Apostolic College in Newburgh, New York. He completed religious studies at St. Joseph Seminary in Washington, D.C., and received a doctoral degree from The Catholic University of America.

He joined the Society of St. Joseph of the Sacred Heart, or the Josephites, in 1962 and took his final vows on June 1, 1967. He was ordained to the priesthood on May 25, 1968, by Baton Rouge Bishop Emmet Tracy.

He served at several parishes in New Orleans and Washington prior to being appointed as a vicar bishop in the Archdiocese of Baltimore by Pope John Paul II. He was subsequently consecrated as an auxiliary bishop of that archdiocese on July 2, 1984, the first Black bishop to serve there.

In 1997 he was appointed bishop of the Diocese of Pensacola-Tallahassee, Florida, where he served until 2011 when he retired for health reasons.

In addition to his duties as a prelate, Ricard also served as the first president of the National Black Catholic Congress, holding that role from the congress' inception in 1987 until 2017.

After his retirement from Pensacola-Tallahassee, he served as rector of St. Josephʼs Seminary in Washington. He was elected superior general of the Josephites in 2019.

Having grown up amid pervasive racism in the segregated South prior to the Civil Rights era, Ricard at times commented on racial conflict in the United States, including in 2016 amid civil unrest around police shootings, which he described as a “wake-up call for all of us” in an interview with Catholic News Service.

The bishop said he and his friends “lived under constant threat of being arrested” during the 1950s in Louisiana. He said the Catholic Church can “bring [a lot] to the table” of racial healing in the United States.

“Weʼve got a lot of work to do,” he told the news service.

In a statement released after his death, the Josephites said Ricard “faithfully served the Catholic Church for decades through his ministry as a Josephite priest, counselor, educator, pastor, bishop, humanitarian, and leader.”

“He devoted his life to the proclamation of the Gospel, humanitarian efforts worldwide, the mission of the Josephite Society, and the pastoral care of God’s people, especially within Black Catholic communities,” they said.

The Josephites asked for “prayers for the repose of Bishop Ricard’s soul, for the Josephite community, his family, friends, and all who mourn his passing.”

The controversy centers on the so-called “Latham report,” a years-old inquiry commissioned by the school itself amid the fallout of bombshell abuse allegations against now-disgraced and deceased former cardinal Theodore McCarrick.

Attorney Gabriel Magee represents several Church abuse victims as part of “approximately 400 cases total” in a consolidated litigation against the Archdiocese of Newark, New Jersey. Seton Hall is a defendant in a handful of the cases, he told EWTN News.

As part of those proceedings, state judge Avion Benjamin had ordered the school in November 2025 to turn over the Latham report to lawyers representing victims of clergy abuse. The school had previously argued that the report was protected by attorney-client privilege.

Seton Hall appealed Benjaminʼs order to surrender the report. Oral arguments were held in the appeals court this month.

The Latham report was commissioned by Seton Hall in 2019. Produced by the law firm Latham & Watkins, it has never been made public. The report is expected to examine whether Monsignor Joseph Reilly, then rector of Seton Hall’s Immaculate Conception Seminary (and now university president), knew about abuse claims and failed to report them. Reilly was appointed president in 2024.

Neither the school nor attorneys representing it responded to requests for comment on the ongoing litigation. Magee, meanwhile, disputed claims that the report is protected by legal shields such as the attorney-client privilege or the “work-product privilege.”

“For either to apply, the primary purpose must either be conveying legal advice or it must have been created in anticipation of litigation,” Magee said.

“But the record here shows instead that the Latham Report was created for self-critical analysis by Seton Hall, primarily to determine how to discipline employees who failed to report the sexual harassment and sexual abuse committed by McCarrick and to advise [the school] on how to create new policies to prevent this from happening again,” he said.

Magee said the appeal to the higher court had been expedited, suggesting the court may issue a ruling “sooner rather than later.”

Newark Archdiocese ordered investigation in 2025

Amid the ongoing controversy, Newark archbishop Cardinal Joseph Tobin in February 2025 ordered an independent review.

The prelate said at the time that the review would examine “how the findings of [the earlier reports] relate to Monsignor Joseph Reilly, including whether they were communicated to any and all appropriate personnel at the archdiocese and Seton Hall University and Monsignor Reilly, and if so, by what means and by whom.”

The archbishop said he had not “place[d] a timetable” on the review, which was being carried out by the law firm Ropes & Gray.

Tobin in 2025 had further said that he had not “restricted the firm from exploring any relevant facts or avenue of investigation.”

"A transparent review of the facts will best serve the interests of all involved and of those who have voiced a call for it,” the cardinal said.

In a statement to EWTN News, the Archdiocese of Newark indicated that the review was still ongoing as of May 20.

“Cardinal Tobin stands by his earlier statement that there should be no restrictions on Ropes & Gray’s efforts to access all relevant information and witnesses,” the archdiocese said.

The cardinal “remains committed to a transparent examination of the facts and is optimistic that the review will be completed as expeditiously as possible,” the statement added.

The court in an unsigned order dismissed an appeal from Alabama after the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in favor of Joseph Clifton Smith, with the appeals court holding that Smithʼs low-70s IQ put him close enough to the threshold of an intellectually disability to render his death sentence unconstitutional.

The court heard oral arguments in the case in December 2025. The case had followed a twisting path through the federal court system; the 11th Circuit first ruled in Smithʼs favor in 2023, after which the Supreme Court in 2024 vacated that decision and ordered the appeals court to consider it again.

A second review by the lower court, with another favorable ruling for Smith, again brought the case before the Supreme Court last year; the high courtʼs May 21 ruling brought the case to an end.

The latest ruling represents a potential precedent in how the Supreme Court considers certain cases of capital punishment. The court ruled in the 2002 case Atkins v. Virginia that executing people with intellectual disabilities violated the Constitution’s Eighth Amendment, which prohibits “cruel and unusual punishment."

The justices did not define “intellectual disability” in that case, though it cited expert opinion that “an IQ between 70 and 75 or lower” is “typically considered the cutoff” in some definitions.

Theresa Farnan, philosopher on the Ethics and Public Policy Committee of the National Catholic Partnership on Disability, told EWTN News in April that Smithʼs death sentence was “clearly a borderline case.” Smith was convicted in the brutal 1997 slaying of Durk Van Dam.

“It’s obvious to me he could not grasp the gravity of his crimes,“ Farnan said of Smith. ”In cases like these, the burden on us as a society is even more pronounced to be radically pro-life.”

The Catholic Church in recent decades has come out increasingly against the death penalty, with multiple popes arguing that modern penal systems have rendered capital punishment inadmissible in many if not most cases.

Pope Leo XIV in particular has spoken out several times against the death penalty in just the first year of his pontificate, arguing that “human life is to be respected” and that support for capital punishment is incompatible with a pro-life philosophy.

In 1994 Pope John Paul II established the Pontifical Academy for Life, which works with institutions of higher education, scientific societies, and research centers that deal with life-related issues.

Today, the academy is at the forefront of discussions about artificial intelligence, end-of-life care, and public bioethics.

In March, Pope Leo XIV promulgated new statutes for the Pontifical Academy for Life, recalling that its objective is “the defense and promotion of the value of human life and the dignity of the person.”

The academyʼs mandate is to have a center of studies to “research about the new challenges” and “the new problems concerning human life,” Archbishop Renzo Pegoraro, president of the Pontifical Academy for Life, said in an interview with “EWTN Pro-life Weekly.”

There is an "important ... interdisciplinary dialogue involving biologists, doctors, but also philosophers, theologians, lawyers — all people that could help to analyze the new questions, the new problems, sometimes very urgent and very complicated issues,” he said.

The Pontifical Academy for Life is composed of a presidency, a central office, members, also called academicians, and supporters. Pegoraro has been serving as the president for nearly a year, following his appointment by Pope Leo XIV on May 27, 2025.

Prior, Pegoraro was the chancellor of the academy. He is also a bioethicist who earned a medical degree before entering the seminary.

Pegoraro and the team work to tackle issues that often stem from “the development of medicine” and “the development of science or biology."

They find ways “to define the ethical responsibilities to protect human life and to promote human life with the respect of the dignity of all human beings — from the beginning of life to the end of life,” Pegoraro said.

Changes and advances at the academy

Prior to 2016, those who wanted to work at the academy had to sign a declaration stating that they were pro-life. Since 2016 they no longer need to sign a statement, but the people who work for the academy still need to conform to Church teachings on matters of human dignity.

“We realized the last 10 years, to have members that are not Catholic,” Pegoraro said.

The academy has a “presence of members coming from other religions,” including two Jewish members, one Muslim member, and two Greek Orthodox members, Pegoraro said.

“But they confirm to agree with the basic values concerning human life, and they agree with the teaching of the Catholic Church about these topics,” he said.

Pegoraro addressed some of the specific projects at the academy including one, “neuroscience.“ It addresses the “problems [and] risk of enhancement or manipulation of the human being,” he said.

There is "an interesting project about … neonatal care,” Pegoraro said. It focuses on “before the delivery and immediately after the delivery — particularly for premature children.” It addresses “how to guarantee good care of the baby” and “good care for the mother,” he said.

“There is also an interesting working group now about ethics and disability,” he said.

In the changing times, the academy works to address updated technologies with some of its other projects on artificial intelligence and robots.

The Carolyn E. Fugett Intergenerational Center was created to offer care for all ages — from Head Start to senior care programs. It intends to bring the greater community together through weekly activities, sports teams, art classes, and career guidance.

Kevin Creamer, director of the center, told EWTN News that Catholic Charities of Baltimore has been working to bring generations together through community sites for about 10 years.

The new facility started "as an outgrowth of some of the early childhood supports that we were offering across the agency,” he said.

Catholic Charities is “one of the largest Head Start providers in Baltimore City,” with “13 unique locations and a little under 700 children and families being served there,” Creamer said. “So we have a good grasp on the impact of that early childhood support.”

“But weʼve tried to be intentional as weʼve grown with families and seen those families age out of Head Start and move on to school and eventually careers and college — the benefit of the wraparound services that Head Start provides.”

He continued: “So the question … presented itself: ‘How can we be more intentional about bringing services to attach, so that families arenʼt losing the support structure of Head Start or donʼt have an ability to connect in-house to services?’”

The facility, named after community leader Carolyn Fugett, was ultimately a way to answer the question.

Catholic Charities acquired the project site, which was previously an elementary school, in 2021. Construction for the project took about three and a half years.

“The center itself is a byproduct of our Centennial and Capital Campaign,” Creamer said. “Catholic Charities Baltimore turned 100 in 2023, and a campaign was launched to spearhead three milestone projects for the agency.”

The campaign raised a little over $100 million, which, along with the Fugett Center, contributed to the Gallagher Meaningful Day Center, a center for individuals with intellectual disabilities, and the Cherry Hill Town Center, a community gathering space.

The center has also been funded by private fundraising with a number of partners to support activities and programs.

Community engagement all under ‘one roof’

The intergenerational model allows for multiple program partners to be present and offer activities to different age groups all under one roof.

“We knew we wanted to bring in what we had already been doing well in the neighborhood: our food pantry program, our Head Start programming, some of our behavioral health services,” Creamer said. “But to fill in the gaps around that model, we needed to defer to the expertise of the leaders in the neighborhood.”

Creamer began talking with community partners and leaders “to make sure that we got this right and that there was room in the project scope for the interests of the community.”

“The loss of recreation centers and access to things like after-school basketball and basketball leagues was something that came up a lot in those conversations,” he said.

So basketball became “a big driver,” Creamer said. “PeacePlayers is our in-house basketball partner,” and “theyʼll be running youth programming from [ages] 5 to, really, 25” at the center.

Starting this summer, PeacePlayers will use the Fugett Center as one of its locations for a free program for kids and a coaching and leadership development program for teens and young adults.

A “lack of senior programming space and activity space” also came up when leaders spoke with neighbors, especially since the center is “located right next to Rosemont Tower, which is a 200-unit Housing Authority building largely for seniors,” Creamer said.

To address this, the facility has “five community classrooms thatʼll house a rotating curriculum of classes” including “senior dance class, musical theater, chair yoga, candle making — all free of charge to our neighbors.”

It will offer community art projects led by outside vendors but will also engage the community with volunteer-led classes, as neighbors hope “to lead crocheting classes or jewelry-making classes,” Creamer said.

“We want to empower residents to also give back their gifts,” Creamer said.

The space will also provide “access to the internet, to learn computer skills,” Creamer said. It has a computer lab to offer “digital literacy instruction, job preparation, resume writing, and interview training.”

Named in honor of a lifelong ‘community leader’

The center is named after Carolyn E. Fugett, “who is the mother of Reginald F. Lewis ... who was an entrepreneur and a lawyer — widely considered the first Black billionaire in U.S. history," Creamer said.

Fugett “was a community leader throughout her entire life" who "passed about three years ago at the age of 97."

"She did not ask for credit" and "she preferred to operate in the backdrop but was such a wellspring of compassion.”

As "a big advocate of child education,” she worked with bishops, schoolteachers, and principals to help Catholic schools integrate coming out of segregation.

“So when we thought about the early childhood education piece, the beacon that we want this community center to provide to the neighborhood, she represented all of what we hope to be."

“A handful of the team attached to this project were at her funeral service at St. Edwardʼs Church, which is right across the street from the [center]," Creamer said.

“We came out of that service after hearing the outpouring of love from her family and from the community at large, and the first thing you see walking out of those church doors was the building that was being constructed.”

"Sometimes God speaks very clearly, and itʼs hard not to listen,” he said.

“Weʼre honored to bear her name, and weʼre excited to carry that torch. Sheʼs shown us who we have to be, as has the community. We just need to keep listening and keep rising to the occasion,” Creamer said.

“In 250 years, our nation has never allowed the state to make the church support abortion — and now’s not the time to start,” Laura Wolk Slavis, an attorney for Becket who represents the Catholic groups in the lawsuit, said in a statement.

The lawsuit centers on a May 2025 court ruling that interprets the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act (PWFA) to include a mandate that employers must offer accommodations to employees for obtaining abortions if they are not fully elective.

The language of the PWFA itself does not mention abortion but instead requires that employers offer accommodations to pregnant women in the workplace. The USCCB supported the law, and its Senate sponsor, Sen. Bob Casey Jr., D-Pennsylvania, with cosponsor Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-Louisiana, promised it would not require abortion accommodations.

In spite of this, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) under former President Joe Biden imposed rules for PWFA that interpreted it as requiring abortion accommodations for both elective and nonelective abortions in April 2024, which prompted the USCCB lawsuit.

A federal court in May 2025 ruled that the law itself, regardless of what the regulations say, does require that the Catholic bishops and the other Catholic groups offer abortion accommodations if a pregnant woman is experiencing a negative health effect from the pregnancy itself but not if it is fully elective.

According to the USCCB lawsuit, such negative effects range from serious complications with the pregnancy to common pregnancy-related conditions such as minor or severe hormonal changes, anxiety, nausea, or vomiting.

Daniel Blomberg, an attorney for Becket, told EWTN News that some of the conditions listed are “literally the case for any pregnancy.” He noted that the ruling requires the Catholic groups to not only accommodate abortions in those situations but also to rewrite policies and procedures in a way that clearly communicates these accommodations to employees or prospective employees.

The court’s interpretation of the law, Blomberg said, forces Catholic ministries to “adopt anti-life employment policies and statements in the workplace” and would stifle the speech of anyone in the workplace who would discourage an abortion accommodation.

As interpreted by the court, the rule would “police the internal speech and even the atmosphere of the religious ministry” and it “radically transforms the requirements on religious ministries” as it relates to abortion, he warned.

Blomberg noted that the 2025 court ruling interpreted the law itself as creating this mandate — not simply the regulations that followed. He explained that this means President Donald Trump’s administration does not have the authority to overrule the court order by promulgating regulations.

He noted that the Department of Justice’s report on anti-Christian bias under Trump admonished the Biden-era PWFA rule, but “it remains to be seen how the administration’s lawyers will respond in court.”

The EEOC did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Wolk Slavis noted in her statement that other lawsuits against this PWFA interpretation led to stronger religious freedom rulings for other organizations that objected.

“Every other court to consider religious objections to this mandate has protected churches, and we hope the 5th Circuit does too,” she said.

Today, however, his focus has shifted from profit margins to parish ministry. After years serving as a Catholic deacon, Borba now stands on the threshold of an even more profound calling: ordination to the priesthood.

In 2004, Borba — alongside father and son Alan and Joseph Shamah — founded the cruelty-free makeup brand e.l.f. Cosmetics, which stands for “eyes, lips, face.” By the mid-2010s the brand had reached immense levels of success thanks to its affordable prices and ethical products. By 2014, the makeup brand reached $100 million in sales.

Living a life of luxury, in his 40s Borba began to experience a call from God. In 2019, Borba gave up the fortune he had acquired from e.l.f., donating it all to different charities, and entered seminary in the Diocese of Fresno, California.

Borba was ordained a transitional deacon on June 21, 2025, and will be ordained a priest on May 23.

In an interview with “EWTN News Nightly,” Borba shared that he first felt the calling to the priesthood when he was 10 years old but, feeling unworthy, he “ran away from the call and in the process I was running away from my faith also.”

“I had a very big conversion when I was 40,” he added. “At that time, I was in transition of different businesses and through the help of God I was able to understand the state of my soul and where I was headed. I really wanted to recalibrate my life with him and to re-entertain what he offered me when I was 10.”

It was during a house party that Borba realized how lonely, empty, and unloved he felt, despite having everything in terms of material wealth.

“That was another grace from God that he gave me to understand my unhappiness,” he said. “Then he allowed me to ask him the question, ‘Help me be the man you created me to be, but I can’t do it without your help.’ And that’s when the love and mercy came into my life.”

Borba explained that after that moment, his journey continued with the sale of one of his luxury cars. All proceeds were donated to charity, and when he saw “how it could affect people’s lives with positive change — helping with the poverty and the homelessness — that was the key that God, Our Lord, used with me to open the floodgates for the rest of it to go.”

Letting go of the material wealth was one of the hardest aspects of the transition from secular life to religious life, Borba shared. The former beauty mogul went from owning houses to “living in a little tiny room” when he entered St. Patrick’s Seminary in Menlo Park, California.

“You can’t fit everything in there, so you have to make a decision to hold onto it or not. And the seminary gives you the opportunity to figure that out — to either unite to his will or not,” he said. “So, for me, it was to have to give that up. It took me years to get comfortable with that, but now I’m actually in tons of peace knowing that I don’t have many possessions and that I can actually travel and focus on where ministry and Our Lord takes me.”

“Once I surrendered to him and understood the reality of why I’m here, why we’re all placed here, is to get back in union with him, it literally changed my life,” he shared.

Borba encouraged those who might also be ignoring God’s call in their lives to “not give up.”

“If Our Lord is calling you and you’re just not ready for the call, ask him to have patience with you and to direct you in the life that you’re currently in. But let me tell you, if we orient ourselves to God right now, he takes care of everything for us in this life as well as prepares us for the next,” he said.

“If we’re able to do his will, the joy and the love and the success will come, but itʼs oriented to his divine providence. That’s what I didn’t know, that is the truth, and that’s what I want to let everyone know: Put him first and everything will fall into place, I promise you.”

In a letter to leaders of the House and Senate appropriations committees, Louisville, Kentucky, Bishop Shelton J. Fabre, chair of the USCCB Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development, wrote that conserving the environment is a command from God and necessary for the common good.

“In the Book of Genesis, God commands humanity ‘to cultivate and care for’ the Earth and its resources,” Fabre wrote, quoting Genesis 2:15.

He listed the environmental priorities of both Pope Francis and Pope Leo XIV and said one important way to fulfill that mission is with federal funding to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Department of the Interior (DOI).

Fabre encouraged the restoration of previous levels of funding after the fiscal 2026 budget decreased EPA funding by $277 million and DOI funding by $211 million. The Trump administrationʼs fiscal 2027 budget proposal called for cutting the EPA’s budget by more than half and decreasing the Interior Departmentʼs budget by nearly 13%.

Fabre said adequate funding and staffing is necessary for the agencies to fulfill their responsibilities under the National Environmental Policy Act, Endangered Species Act, Clean Air Act, and Clean Water Act, and to support certain initiatives.

“Notable initiatives from these agencies that foster care for creation and the common good include the Superfund Program to clean up toxic waste contamination; State Revolving Funds (SRF) programs that provide loans, matched by states, to upgrade aging infrastructure to improve access to clean and safe drinking water, improve the health of our nation’s rivers, lakes, and wetlands, and support economic opportunities; and programs that monitor air quality from power plants and industrial facilities, schools, and ports,” the letter said.

The bishop further expressed concerns about cuts to programs that were meant to promote clean energy, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and safeguard endangered species and wilderness areas, among other things.

“Adequate funding for EPA and DOI is necessary for our nation to safeguard our God-given, life-sustaining natural resources such as water, air, lands, and wildlife,” Fabre wrote.

“These investments further promote economic opportunity and healthy environments where people live and recreate,” he added. “Congress should take care to ensure that these funds address environmental risks to God’s creation, especially for the most vulnerable amongst us.”

Fabre thanked the lawmakers for efforts to protect ecosystems and public health, ensure safe drinking water and clean air, address climate change, and support sustainable livelihoods.

“The common good requires sound stewardship of the environment and respect for the human dignity of all who share our common home,” he added.

The Minnesota Catholic Conference, the public policy arm of the Church in Minnesota, issued a statement May 16 saying it is “encouraged” that lawmakers in both legislative houses overwhelmingly passed the Stop Harms from Addictive Social Media Act.

The bill is aimed at curbing the purportedly addictive design of social media for young children by imposing new requirements on large social media platforms earning $1 billion or more in global advertising revenue.

It prohibits several features for accounts of children 15 and younger, including infinite scrolling, algorithmic or profile-based feeds, push notifications for new content or likes, autoplay videos, visible engagement metrics such as likes and shares, and usage-based awards, badges, or streaks.

“No more ads, no more push notifications, no more infinite scrolling … and the strongest privacy protections,” state Rep. Peggy Scott, the author of the bill in the state House, said when presenting the bill.

Targeted or paid commercial advertising based on the child’s activity or personal information is also banned for youth accounts.

“This legislation puts parents back in the driver’s seat and helps them foster healthy dialogue with their kids about social media use,” said Maggee Hangge, assistant director for family policy at the Minnesota Catholic Conference, in a press release. “It will mean happier kids who are less anxious, less worried, and more focused on the present moment.”

After passing with a vote of 132-2 in the House and a vote of 66-0 in the Senate, the bill now requires Gov. Tim Walz’s signature to become law.

“I’ve seen the addiction, the mental health issues — this is an area [of concern] that crosses party lines,” said state Sen. Michael Kreun, who co-authored the bill.

“Parents really need help right now with all this technology,” he said. “Kids themselves are asking for help, as we have seen from the data.”

The bishops’ conference cited a recent Minnesota Student Survey that found  that almost 20% of students are online between midnight and 5 a.m. at least five nights a week, along with a 2023 study that showed that 97% of students report using their smartphones during the school day.

Johann D’Souza, a Catholic psychologist who focuses on the destructive effects of screen overuse on youth, told EWTN News that the Minnesota bill is “a laudable step in the right direction given the documented mental health crisis in youth starting in 2010, the year Instagram came out.”

“Let’s build momentum from this small but real win to further protect children from toxic screen use and digital destruction,” he said.

If signed by Walz, the law would take effect July 1, 2027, for both new and existing accounts. It includes exemptions for email, direct messaging, streaming services, online games, and e-commerce platforms where social features are not central.

Enforcement includes a private right of action for families, with potential statutory damages of $10,000 per knowing or reckless violation, plus possible punitive damages and state attorney general enforcement as a deceptive trade practice.

The diocese said in a May 19 statement that the diocesan administration, along with “parishes, schools, and other Catholic entities,” would contribute into the settlement, which would be organized as a “survivor trust.”

“Once the plan is confirmed by the Bankruptcy Court, the $45 million contributed to the survivor trust ... will be available for distribution to survivors of sexual abuse perpetrated against them by clergy, religious, lay employees, and volunteers,” the diocese said.

Ogdensburg Bishop Terry LaValley prayed that the settlement “will bring peace and healing to all survivors and to all the faithful whose hearts were broken by the gravely sinful conduct of Church leaders.”

“The great harm that has been caused by this sinful behavior must never be allowed to happen again,“ he said. ”It is my sincere hope that this process has brought the survivors some comfort and peace.”

The diocese "is committed to ensuring the safety of all persons entrusted to our care,” the bishop said.

The New York-based law firm Jeff Anderson & Associates said in a May 19 press release that the diocese and abuse victims “will continue negotiations regarding significant nonmonetary provisions,” including “enhancements to child protection policies and the public disclosure of information related to clergy and other personnel accused of sexual abuse.”

The Ogdensburg Diocese filed for bankruptcy in July 2023, the sixth diocese in New York state to do so.

The bankruptcy filing came as the diocese was facing dozens of abuse lawsuits filed under the stateʼs 2019 Child Victims Act, which significantly expanded the window in which abuse victims could file lawsuits against abusers and institutions.

At the time of the bankruptcy filing, LaValley said dealing with the lawsuits on a case-by-case basis would be “slow” and “unpredictable.”

“Reorganization ensures that each survivor receives just compensation," the bishop said at the time. "It eliminates a race to the courthouse in which the earliest cases settled or brought to judgment could exhaust the resources available to pay claims, leaving nothing for victims whose cases are resolved later."

Earlier this month it was announced that the Archdiocese of New York would pay $800 million into an abuse settlement there, with the amount covering around 1,300 victims who also filed under the state Child Victims Act.

The Coalition for Spiritual and Public Leadership (CSPL), a Chicago-based Catholic and Christian advocacy group, said in a May 19 press release that it has struck a deal with ICE and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) that allows “daily pastoral visits.”

The temporary agreement follows a nearly 10-month-long campaign and lawsuit filed by CSPL and other faith leaders in November. CSPL faith leaders were permitted to provide pastoral care for Ash Wednesday and Holy Week but were denied entrance at Christmas.

The group noted that the agreement is not permanent and that the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois requested a July status update.

“During the pendency of this federal litigation, as ordered by the court, plaintiffs may access the ICE Broadview Service Staging Area Facility,” the agreement states, according to CSPL, “to offer pastoral services on a daily basis to detainees who wish to receive pastoral care, including spiritual care, prayer, or facility-approved sacramental ministry, which may include rites tied to specific religious observances.”

Access to the facility will be allowed for up to five religious leaders per day between 8 a.m. and 11 a.m. and between 1 p.m. and 4 p.m., CSPL said. ICE personnel are required under the agreement to provide “sufficient space for religious services to be carried out within reasonable operational parameters,” CSPL said. The agreement also requires ICE to “make reasonable efforts” to facilitate privacy for detainees during the sacrament of confession, CSPL said.

Visits may only take place after detainees have completed intake and must be concluded with enough time for detainees to be transported out of the facility, CSPL said. ICE is permitted to limit visitation based on safety threats and operational concerns under the agreement, CSPL said.

‘Emergency room treatment’

The group provided religious services to 12 detainees at Broadview under the agreement on May 17, CSPL said.

“One detainee, facing deportation, expressed his gratitude for the visit and said, ‘Me siento como a volver a vivir,’ which loosely translates to a feeling of being brought back to life,” the organization said in the release.

“To my mind, it’s emergency room treatment,” said Father Paul Keller, CMF, the provincial for the Claretian Missionaries and a member of the CSPL Clergy Council. “Someone is there right when the trauma has happened to attend to the immediate emotional and spiritual wounds.”

“This agreement represents a recognition of the human dignity and basic human rights of our detained sisters and brothers,” CSPL Executive Director Michael N. Okińczyc-Cruz said.

Another civil suit (Moreno Gonzalez v. Noem) in federal court alleged detainees at the Broadview facility faced overcrowded, “inhumane” conditions, insufficient nutrition, inadequate medical care, lack of privacy, and a squalid living environment.

Although detainees are only meant to be held at Broadview for a few hours, with the maximum being 72 hours, some alleged last year that they were held there for several days and even up to one week during ICE’s Operation Midway Blitz, which detained about 3,000 immigrants illegally residing in the state.

A DHS spokesperson said “religious organizations are more than welcome to provide services to detainees in ICE detention facilities” and disputed detainees' claims that the Broadview facility functions as a detention center, not a temporary processing facility.

“Even before the attacks on the Broadview facility, it was not within standard operating procedure for religious services to be provided in a field office, as detainees are continuously brought in, processed, and transferred out," according to a DHS spokesperson.

The bishops seek protection of the pastoral needs of detainees and changes to enforcement practices.

“We encourage members of both parties to reject partisan appropriations funding and instead rededicate yourselves to a collaborative process that pursues the common good and promotes human dignity and flourishing,” they wrote in a letter to Republican and Democratic lawmakers.

The letter was signed by Oklahoma City Archbishop Paul Coakley, president of the USCCB, and Victoria, Texas, Bishop Brendan Cahill, chair of the USCCB Committee on Migration.

In the letter, the bishops acknowledge “the legitimate role of the state to regulate immigration, including by bringing to justice those among us who seek to inflict harm,” but raise concerns about enforcement practices.

“Enforcement of immigration laws cannot truly advance the common good without reasonable conditions that ensure respect for the God-given dignity of each person, inherent in which is the exercise of certain fundamental rights,” they wrote.

The bishops asked for enforcement to be better aligned with “the moral order,” such as avoiding enforcement near sensitive locations like churches when there are not extreme circumstances and “mandating consistent access to religious and pastoral services” for detainees.

“Rather than pursuing such measures through a bipartisan process, Congress now risks setting a concerning precedent — one in which furthering the common good is undermined for the sake of political expediency,” they wrote.

Under President Donald Trump’s administration, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) rescinded a rule that put limits on immigration enforcement at “sensitive locations” like churches. DHS officials still urge officer discretion and contend such enforcement would be rare.

DHS also says it encourages clergy to reach out for accommodations to ensure spiritual needs are met for detainees, although officials denied faith leaders' requests to bring the sacraments to an immigration processing facility in Illinois until a federal lawsuit was filed in November 2025 following repeated denials.

DHS recently emerged from a prolonged fiscal 2026 funding impasse, the longest DHS shutdown on record. Congress passed a bill that funded most DHS components, but Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) funding was left unresolved, requiring separate legislative action. The ongoing complexity may influence the fiscal 2027 appropriations timeline, and Republicans have proposed giving ICE and CBP $70 billion in additional funding, on top of $170 billion Congress already allocated last year.

The bishops requested lawmakers “limit additional funding increases for immigration enforcement after the unprecedented amounts provided through last year’s reconciliation bill.” They expressed concern over “an enforcement-only approach to immigration,” which they said “can never meet the demands of the moral law.”

“Nor does such an approach truly support the welfare and prosperity of American communities,” the bishops said.

Fifty‑four people have died in ICE custody since the start of fiscal 2025, which is 125% more detainee deaths than occurred during all four previous fiscal years combined (24 deaths), according to ICE detainee death reporting data.

In their letter to Congress, the bishops quoted a speech by Pope Leo XIV on Jan. 9 in which the Holy Father said: “To be authentic, democratic processes must be accompanied by the political will to pursue the common good, to strengthen social cohesion, and to promote the integral development of every person.”

The bishops asked Congress to follow that guidance when putting together the budget bill.

“Through this reconciliation effort and the circumstances that gave rise to it, we see the unfortunate absence of that will and therefore the failure to achieve reasonable and necessary reforms to current immigration enforcement practices,” they said.

The USCCB is set to gather for the 2026 Spring Plenary Assembly in Orlando, Florida, on June 10–12.

Archbishop Gabriele Giordano Caccia, nuncio to the United States, also is scheduled to deliver his first address to U.S. bishops since his appointment in March.

In preparation for consecrating the nation, bishops will hear reflections on the Sacred Heart from several of the bishops ahead of the Mass. The USCCB said in a statement that the bishops hope the event encourages parishes and individuals to also participate in America’s 250th anniversary by contributing to 250 hours of adoration and 250 works of mercy.

Lectionary changes

The full plenary agenda has not yet been finalized and is subject to change, but it is expected to include votes on a number of action items including the causes for canonization of Monsignor Joseph Francis Buh and John Rick Miller.

The Committee on Divine Worship also will present elements of a revised edition of the “Lectionary for Mass” and the “2025 Roman Missal-Liturgy of the Hours Supplement” for approval.

The bishops are expected to vote on a potential revision to the “Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People,” which was first addressed by bishops in 2022 meetings.

The bishops have determined the charter is in need of revisions to align with its original intention of safeguarding minors, the prevention of abuse, and ensuring structures continue to be in place to respond to abuse allegations, the USCCB said.

9-year novena, Catholic universities to be discussed

The U.S. bishops are also expected to talk about the USCCB’s engagement with the Intercontinental Guadalupan Novena, a nine-year novena called for by Pope Francis in 2022 that anticipates the fifth centennial of the apparition of Our Lady of Guadalupe in 2031.

For the 25th anniversary of the implementation of Ex Corde Ecclesiae in the U.S., there is an expected presentation and reflection on Pope John Paul II’s apostolic constitution to guide Catholic colleges and universities on theological and pastoral principles.

The group will also discuss upcoming events including World Youth Day 2027, which will be held in Seoul, South Korea.

A May 15 filing in U.S. Bankruptcy Court revealed that the archdiocese would contribute just under $44 million to an abuse settlement for survivors, while “settling insurers” would pay a total of $125 million into the fund.

The insurance amount represents a 25% increase from an earlier proposed contribution of $100 million.

In a statement on the filing, the archdiocese said the overall plan “seeks to provide equitable compensation to survivors while sustaining the Church’s mission and ministries.”

The proposal “reflects a commitment to transparency and a realistic assessment of available resources,” it said.

The archdiocese noted that “no final agreement has yet been achieved.” The proposal would also establish a “Survivor Compensation Trust” to “evaluate claims and distribute compensation to survivors.”

The archdiocese “will continue to listen, to learn, and to seek a resolution that honors the dignity of survivors and strengthens the mission of the Church for generations to come,” the statement said.

In 2024 the Baltimore Archdiocese sued multiple insurers over what it claimed was a failure to pay abuse claims for which the insurers were contractually obligated.

U.S. dioceses in recent years have frequently turned to insurers to help cover major abuse settlements, though insurers have at times challenged claims from dioceses on the grounds that their insurance policies did not cover instances of sex abuse.

Marie Reilly, a professor of law at Penn State University and an expert in bankruptcy litigation, including Catholic diocesan bankruptcy proceedings, told EWTN News in 2025 that starting in the 1990s, insurance companies mostly changed how they cover sexual abuse.

“Up until about the mid-’90s, a general liability policy used to include coverages for employee liability,” she said. “It would cover sex abuse claims against the diocese stemming from an employee’s abuse.”

“After 1996, insurance policies issued under new revised standards just don’t provide that coverage anymore,” she said.

The city government said police responded to the shooting at the Islamic Center of San Diego just before noon on May 18. Three adult victims, including a security guard, were found dead outside of the center, while the two suspects — aged 17 and 18 — were found dead several blocks away with self-inflicted gunshot wounds.

The FBI is helping with the investigation, the city said. The shooting is being investigated as a hate crime.

In a statement released on May 18, Pham said the local Catholic community “stand[s] united in solidarity and prayer with the Muslim community” in San Diego.

Decrying the “senseless act of violence” at the mosque, Pham said the Islamic Center of San Diego “has been a longtime partner in our collaborative work for justice, especially in accompanying immigrants.”

“Houses of worship must always be sanctuaries of peace, safety, and prayer,” the bishop said. “An attack on one faith community is an attack on the sacred dignity of all human life.”

The bishop offered his "deepest condolences, solidarity, and fervent prayers to the families of the victims and the entire Muslim community.”

Archbishop Paul Coakley of Oklahoma City, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, expressed sorrow and prayerful solidarity with the Muslim community.

“We stand with Chief Imam Taha Hassane, the entire Muslim community, and all who mourn in the wake of this senseless violence, affirming our shared commitment to the dignity of every human life and the rejection of hatred in all its forms,” Coakley said in a statement. “In moments such as these, we are reminded of the call to be instruments of peace; as Pope Leo XIV has said, ‘Where violence wounds the human family, compassion and unity must be our steadfast reply.’ May God console the grieving, strengthen the injured, and guide us all toward greater understanding, justice, and peace.”

In a statement on its Facebook page, the Islamic Center said it had lost “three pillars of our community,” including the security guard, who “gave his life protecting the children and community members” of the facility.

The three men who were killed “put themselves on the line for our [mosque] and our community,” the center said, describing them as “men of courage, sacrifice, and faith.”

In another post the mosque said it had established a victim support fund for those impacted by the tragedy.

On its website the center said it was “closed until further notice.” The facility opened in 1989 and is the largest mosque in San Diego County.

The mosque was the target of a bomb attack in 1991 when an explosive device was found in a bathroom there. The device did not explode and nobody was injured in the incident.

This story was updated at 5:45 p.m. ET on May 19, 2026 to include a statement from Archbishop Paul Coakley.

While declining wages among working-class men is sometimes cited as reason for declining marriage rates, especially among moderate- to low-income brackets, Rachel Sheffield, a Heritage Foundation research fellow, said “the data tell a different story.”

Over the past 50 years, the report said, marriage rates have declined from more than 90% of Americans having married by ages 30-35 in 1962 to 55% as of 2025.

“While inflation-adjusted earnings did decline among working-class and lower-income men during the 1970s and 1980s, earnings rose thereafter and have fluctuated since then — even as marriage rates have steadily dropped,” the report said. “Although economic factors may explain why marriage declined during some periods across the past several decades, cultural shifts instead have been the main drivers.”

“The economic argument doesn’t really hold up to scrutiny,” Sheffield told EWTN News. Sheffield said census data about the median earnings of men in their 20s and 30s has been “mostly flat” or fluctuated but not gone down consistently overall. Though “at certain times there were downturns,” she said, wages have “reached some of the highest levels they have had in the last 50 years.”

“I think the bigger point is that in the past,” she said, “owning a home or having a particular size of home was less of a prerequisite to entering marriage than it is today.”

Sheffield said one of the factors driving higher material expectations is that “people go into marriage today with more of an expectation that this might not last because of shifts over time in divorce rates.”

According to Pew Research Center data, 1 in 3 Americans who have ever been married have also experienced a divorce. However, Pew Research Center notes that divorce rates have been down since the 1980s, partly due to the married population shifting to adults with higher levels of education and people with lower levels of education becoming less likely to marry at all.

While Sheffield said cultural norms about sex and childbearing have shifted across income levels, the shift has been most impactful on the working class, which she said is more likely to have children out of wedlock.

“People at all education and income levels have embraced the cultural push to disconnect marriage and sex, but among the college-educated, roughly 90% of children are born within marriage,” the report said. “While the college-educated are most likely to promote the cultural messages that marriage is unnecessary, outdated, and even oppressive, they do not practice what they preach.”

Furthermore, she said, “having a child [outside of marriage] is going to make it less likely for you to get married down the road because it is just a greater family complexity.”

On a policy level, Sheffield called for funds from the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program to be used for “strengthening marriages,” including through high school marriage education programs.

She highlighted Utah’s “Healthy Marriage Initiative” as a strong example of a state providing marriage-preparation resources, including a discount on marriage licenses for couples who complete premarital education programs.

In addition to front-loading marriage education at the high school level, Sheffield called for a reorientation of cultural messages in the media, TV shows, and advertisements that “have information on why marriage is important and that can lead people to educational resources on how to strengthen marriage.”

In a written statement, read by a priest on Wester’s behalf at a public hearing on May 14, the archbishop described nuclear weapons as “immoral” and “genocidal.” The priest who read the statement is from Hiroshima, Japan, where the U.S. dropped the first atomic bomb in 1945.

The hearing, the fourth of five scheduled this month, drew more than 130 people in person and roughly 100 online, with the vast majority expressing opposition to the agency’s draft environmental impact statement, in which it lays out its plan to ramp up plutonium pit production.

Wester directly challenged the position of the NNSA that increased pit production complies with the 1970 Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT). He argued that the treaty’s core bargain requires nuclear-armed states to work toward disarmament, a commitment he said has not been fulfilled.

“The essential bargain of the NPT was that the nuclear weapons states try to negotiate nuclear disarmament,” Westerʼs statement said. “The nuclear weapons powers have never upheld that part of the bargain.”

The NNSA proposal calls for at least 80 pits per year by 2030, as required by the 2015 National Defense Authorization Act, potentially split between Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico and the Savannah River Site in South Carolina.

Between the two locations, they could produce around 200 pits per year.

The current number of pits being produced annually is “classified,” according to Toni Chiri, a spokesperson for the NNSA’s Los Alamos field office.

Chiri stated that the agency values public input and will consider comments as it prepares a final environmental impact statement.

‘Peace through atomic strength’

Nevertheless, Chiri emphasized the NNSA’s mission. “We make weapons that deter our adversaries. Atomic strength is essential for U.S. nuclear deterrence and national security.”

During the hearing, a screen displayed the NNSA’s slogan: “Peace through atomic strength.” The NNSA is housed within the U.S. Department of Energy.

The prelate’s intervention carried particular weight coming from the Archdiocese of Santa Fe, which has lived for decades with the legacy of nuclear weapons development at Los Alamos in northern New Mexico.

Wester’s message aligns with consistent Church teaching that the use of nuclear weapons is incompatible with peace and human dignity.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church explicitly condemns “indiscriminate destruction of whole cities or vast areas with their inhabitants,” calling them “a crime against God and man.”

It does not, however, explicitly declare the possession of nuclear weapons immoral. That stronger language has come more recently from Pope Francis.

In 2022, Francis wrote: “I wish to reaffirm that the use of nuclear weapons, as well as their mere possession, is immoral,” in a letter to Ambassador Alexander Kmentt, president of the First Meeting of States Parties, regarding the U.N. Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.

During his year-old pontificate, Pope Leo XIV has made multiple calls for peace. He has also warned of the dangers of modern warfare, including the threat of nuclear escalation at a time when global tensions remain high, and he has called for renewed international efforts toward disarmament and de-escalation.

Comments on the draft environmental impact statement will be accepted until July 16. The NNSA expects to issue a final decision early next year, though some commenters noted that as the agency is required by law to manufacture the pits, public hearings are useless.

Chiri said, however, that “NNSA does listen; we take the comments — especially those that actually address the document — and consider those as we work towards our final document.”

“Based on the turnout tonight, it’s clear that the public is paying attention and wants to provide its input,” she said.

Many attendees at the hearing also raised concerns about environmental impacts, water usage, waste disposal, and the health of workers and surrounding communities. Several speakers also questioned why a genuine “no-action” alternative — meaning no new pit production — was not seriously considered.

Victor Avila, assistant director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP), made the comments during a panel discussion on border security and immigration enforcement hosted by the America First Policy Institute’s (AFPI) Hispanic Leadership Coalition in Washington, D.C., on May 14.

“We need to get the church involved,” he said, referencing a ONDCP report that emphasizes the importance of faith-based partners.

The report, issued this month, details the administration’s drug control strategy and states the office will ensure access to evidence-based prevention and recovery programs that are faith-based. It lists faith leaders as important partners and advocates and encourages them to use their role to promote a social norm that is opposed to using drugs and supportive of treatment for addicts.

Avila told EWTN News after the panel that he hopes churches can also assist in the realm of human trafficking, noting that much of it “happens in plain sight.”

Both the Vatican and the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops have been outspoken on the issue of human trafficking in recent years, with the Vatican hosting an international conference last year on the issue and the U.S. bishops running programs and promoting policies to combat human trafficking.

Illicit drugs, human trafficking, and border policies

The discussion of drug control and human trafficking was part of a broader conversation about border security and immigration enforcement in the country.

While the U.S. bishops support border security, they have been at odds with the administration over various immigration enforcement policies.

During the panel, Avila indicated that the work to secure the border has been essential to the “drop in drugs coming in” and noted “the illegal alien rate [is] almost at zero.” He specifically noted significant drops in poisonings related to fentanyl, which he also credited to dramatically improved border security during the current administration.

Alfonso Aguilar, AFPI director of Hispanic engagement, similarly noted humanitarian concerns that overlap with border security, noting people making journeys to cross the border unlawfully often face “violence, exploitation, and even death along the way” with many women and girls being victimized through “rape and sexual assault.”

“That’s not a humane system,” he said, emphasizing that migration should be “effective, lawful, and humane.”

Panelists, including Avila and Aguilar, defended the administration’s mass deportation agenda, arguing that those policies are required for safety. Although a low percentage of migrants facing deportation have committed violent crimes, panelists claimed that a majority have some form of criminal history.

Aguilar said that number is 70% — the same number reported by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). This number includes people convicted of crimes and those who face charges but have no convictions. It includes both felonies and misdemeanors.

Speaking to EWTN News, Aguilar said some nonviolent crimes are serious: “Child pornography is not a violent crime. It is a serious crime. Those are being detained as well.” During the panel, he noted other nonviolent crimes that put people at risk, such as driving while intoxicated.

“There is a 30% who are collateral arrests, but they are arrested when thereʼs an enforcement operation going after a criminal,” he told EWTN News.

Michael Garcia, a former Republican congressman from California, said during the panel that it’s important to “hold the criminals accountable first,” calling enforcement “common sense.”

During the panel, Emilio González, former director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, also noted that he is an immigrant, but he considers illegal immigration to be the greatest threat to legal immigration.

“It should be legal, it should be safe, it should be orderly,” he said.

Family separation, mass deportations

Before the panel began, Aguilar, a Catholic, quoted the concerns Cardinal Robert Sarah has expressed about large-scale migration, in which the cardinal noted that people come to Europe “penniless, without work, without dignity.”

“The Church cannot cooperate with this new form of slavery that has become mass migration,” Sarah said.

At the same time, Pope Leo XIV has encouraged support for migrants. In addition, the USCCB overwhelmingly backed a November 2025 joint statement to oppose “the indiscriminate mass deportation of people” and unnecessary separation of families.

A Brookings Institution report this week estimated that more than 100,000 children have been separated from their families as part of deportation proceedings.

A DHS spokesperson said in a statement to EWTN News that immigration enforcement “does not separate families,” adding: “Parents are asked if they want to be removed with their children or ICE will place the children with a safe person the parent designates. This is consistent with past administrations’ immigration enforcement.”

Avila, who had a career in federal law enforcement before joining the Trump administration, told EWTN News it’s “not a good feeling for us as police officers” to separate families, but that if someone in the country unlawfully has children who are citizens, then they have an option for the children to remain in the country or leave with the parent.

“They think that if my kid is a U.S. citizen that I get to somehow stay here,” he said, adding that this situation does not justify remaining in the country unlawfully.

“I arrested countless people in my career,” Avila said of his law enforcement experience. “One hundred percent of the time, I separated families.”

He said immigration enforcement has “separated families all the time” including when Avila worked for DHS under former President Barack Obama. He alleged a “double standard” in rhetoric from “the [political] left.”

DHS reported more than 675,000 deportations in Trump’s first year in office and has estimated more than 2.2 million self-deportations in that time period. Some organizations, including the Center for Migration Studies, have questioned the asserted self-deportation numbers.

The move, announced May 18, restructures HHS’ Office of Civil Rights (OCR) with three divisions: the Conscience and Religious Freedom Division, the Civil Rights Division, and the Health Information Privacy, Data, and Cybersecurity Division.

“This reorganization … strengthens the [OCR’s] ability to defend religious liberty, enforce conscience protections, and combat unlawful discrimination,” HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said in a statement.

“Under President Trump’s leadership, HHS will defend these rights with clarity, accountability, and resolve,” he said.

During Trump’s first administration in 2018, HHS established the office, but it was dissolved in 2023 under former President Joe Biden’s administration. According to an HHS news release, the restoration is meant to ensure HHS can better prioritize religious freedom and conscience rights enforcement.

According to the news release, the restoration is meant to build on Trump’s stated effort to eradicate “anti-Christian bias.”

On April 30, the Department of Justice issued a report on eradicating anti-Christian bias, which accused HHS under previous leadership of imposing rules for providers to offer what it called “gender-affirming care for minors.” The report stated that providers interpreted the rules as having “limited or no religious exemptions,” as exemptions were reviewed on a case-by-case basis.

Under Biden, HHS also removed some conscience protections for doctors and interpreted the 1986 Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA) as imposing a requirement on hospitals and emergency rooms to offer abortion in “emergency” situations, which prompted lawsuits by Catholic organizations.

“This reorganization reinstitutes a structure that rightly prioritizes civil rights and conscience and religious freedom alongside health information privacy and security,” HHS OCR Director Paula M. Stannard said in a statement. “All three areas are deserving of subject-matter expertise and distinct senior executive leadership for OCR to best serve the American people.”

In March, HHS’s OCR launched investigations into 13 states for allegedly violating federal conscience protections for those who hold moral or religious objections to abortion.

The EWTN original show was created in partnership with Little Fiat Studios and is available exclusively on EWTN+, the new streaming platform for EWTN’s Catholic content.

The show was created by former actress Jessica Rey, known for her role in the Disney television series “Power Rangers Wild Force.” Following her acting career, Rey left Hollywood and launched a successful fashion brand and later focused on her vocation as a Catholic wife, mother, and creator.

Through producing “Fork in the Road,” Rey is creating and working alongside her three children to emphasize experiential learning and the opportunities home schooling provides.

“Our family has been living this travel and home-school life for over a decade," Rey told EWTN. "Families kept asking how we do it — how we school on the road, learn through food, find the sacred in everyday places. We finally decided to bring them along."

The new series follows a nearly 5% annual growth in home schooling, with 3.4 million K-12 home-schooled during the 2024-2025 school year.

“‘Fork in the Road’ is an invitation for families to see the world as a classroom and to recognize faith woven into every detail of the journey,” Rey said.

The series features Rey’s children — Nathanael, Estella, and Sebastian — as they discover cultures through the universal language of food and family in numerous nations including Austria, Croatia, Italy, and Portugal.

“Travel puts you face to face with beauty you can’t explain away, and for us, that always points back to God,” Rey said. “You can scroll past a photo of a cathedral or flip past it in a book, but standing inside one is something else entirely — when both the scale and the details take your breath away.”

“And then we look over and see our kids with their mouths open, just completely undone by it. These moments are such a huge gift from God,” she said.

The first season is live on EWTN+ and has been signed for a second season. Watch it now here.

The film blends documentary-style interviews with prominent figures in the faith community and reenactments that bring key moments to life. Perspectives from both Catholic and Protestant leaders are featured in the film, including interviews with Father Mathias Thelen, Pastor James Ward, evangelist Francis Chan, and Catholic biblical scholar Mary Healy, who also serves as a producer of the film.

The movie will be in theaters nationwide May 19 and 20.

Adriana Gonzalez, the Catholic executive producer behind the film, told EWTN News in an interview that the inspiration for the film came from her own passion regarding Christian unity as well as a talk she heard in 2020 given by Healy.

Gonzalez said she felt it was necessary to make the documentary because in today’s society “thereʼs greater division, greater animosity, so greater unity is just logically beneficial because we want to stand strong against a world that really attacks Christianity.”

Another reason she believes this movie is needed “is because we do witness a move of God today and so much of it is based on unity in the Holy Spirit ... So, who knows when that last day will come, but yet, there is a preparation that moves forward in history and in the progression of the Church, and I do believe that unity is one of those things that must be wrought by the Holy Spirit to prepare the bride of Christ.”

Gonzalez highlighted that this film also addresses some of the misconceptions many have regarding the pursuit of Christian unity, namely that it "waters down our Catholic faith.”

One of the main reasons this fear needs to be debunked, she explained, is because “the Church itself calls all of her faithful to pursue unity in the body of Christ.”

“This was established in the Second Vatican Council,“ she said. ”St. John Paul II reiterated it in his encyclical Ut Unum Sint. And so itʼs a call from the Church herself to all the faithful, not just to the hierarchy, to all the faithful, to pursue unity.”

Michael Girgenti, the actor who portrays Jesus in the film, added that he often sees Christians of many denominations focusing on “wanting to be right versus maybe teaming up on trying to bring others who donʼt know Christ to Christ.”

He added: “The Churchʼs mission until the end of ages is to gather as many souls and to unite them to Christ and thatʼs literally what the documentary focuses on as far as like yes, thereʼs a bunch of different denominations, but thereʼs also even more people who reject the Lord, donʼt know the Lord, and we have to do what we can, together, to bring and show them the light of Christ.”

Gonzalez emphasized another aspect of Christian unity that personally impacted her passion toward the topic and believes all Catholics should contemplate.

“What moves me toward really being passionate about this … is just thinking that our dear beloved Jesus — who is the center and head and core of everything in our faith — prayed this the night before he died,” she shared. “It seems to me like ‘Oh wow, that should be enough to compel every single Christian on the face of the earth to say, ‘Lord, how can I be a part of an answer to this prayer that you prayed just hours before you knew you were going to get arrested and crucified?’”

Girgenti shared that he hopes Christian viewers of the film will be reminded that “itʼs not about trying to prove and convince everyone whoʼs right” but instead would be “more inspired to just talk and preach about the Lord.”

As for nonbelievers, he said he hopes “they accept the invitation to know him [Jesus]. I hope they accept the invitation to go deeper, to try to read Scripture, to try to go to church, and to follow the light that he is providing us always.”

Gonzalez added that she hopes viewers will pursue a renewal in “falling in love with Jesus again because then one of the natural consequences of that is unity in the body of Christ.”

The event, which was held under the auspices of Freedom 250, the country’s public-private initiative leading the celebration of the United States' 250th birthday, also commemorated the act of the American colonies’ Continental Congress, which ahead of the Revolutionary War proclaimed May 17, 1776, a “Day of Humiliation, Fasting, and Prayer."

In that proclamation, the leaders of the nascent nation urged their fellow citizens to “confess and bewail our manifold sins and transgressions, and by a sincere repentance and amendment of life, appease his [Godʼs] righteous displeasure, and through the merits and mediation of Jesus Christ, obtain his pardon and forgiveness.”

Catholic participants at the “Rededicate 250” event, held on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., included U.S. Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Cardinal Timothy Dolan, Bishop Robert Barron, and actor Jonathan Roumie, who plays Jesus in “The Chosen” television series.

President Donald Trump did not attend or offer a customized message for the event. Instead, a video of the president from last month’s “America Reads The Bible” event was played in which Trump reads from 2 Chronicles, including verse 7:14: “If my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.”

In a video message to the gathering, Cardinal Timothy Dolan noted that “in every chapter of the American story our faith in God has been the bedrock of our greatness.”

“Our deepest values as a country have always been rooted in our identity as a people of God and anchored in the reality that we’re not only American citizens — you bet we are and grateful for it — but that we are bound some day to be citizens of heaven,” Dolan emphasized, adding that “our founders knew that. They knew that in order to be faithful and productive citizens and true patriots, well we must recognize that we’re children of God first.”

Driving home the point, Dolan cited the nation’s preeminent Founding Father and first president, George Washington, who in 1778 said: “While we are zealously performing the duties of good citizens and soldiers we certainly ought not to be inattentive to the higher duties of religion — to the distinguished character of patriot, it should be our highest glory to add the more distinguished character of Christian.”

Dolan also took the occasion to inform the audience that the nation’s bishops will “consecrate the United States of America to the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus on June 12 of this year.”

The central prayer of the event was led by Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Mike Johnson, who at the outset of his prayer recalled the nation’s legislative forebears’ act of May 17, 1776, which he noted they did “to humble themselves and to seek your guidance at the dawn of their fight for freedom.”

The resulting nation, Johnson continued, “would become, by your mercy and grace, the most successful, most benevolent nation in the history of the world.”

“Lord, today our people gather once again in your name,” Johnson prayed. “We have humbled ourselves before you. We acknowledge that the miracle of our founding and the countless miracles that have followed are your doing.”

“We pray that you bestow on all Americans a renewed love of country, hope for the future, and faith in your everlasting mercy and grace,” Johnson continued. “Father, we pray mercy upon our land, mercy upon us for our mistakes, forgive us of our sins individually and collectively, and help us to devote ourselves with renewed piety and patriotism to the eternal truths of your word.”

As he concluded his prayer, Johnson declared: “Today, here Lord, in this 250th year of American independence, we hereby rededicate the United States of America as one nation under God,” and he asked for the Holy Spirit to descend upon the American homeland.

Johnson was followed by one of the country’s best-known Catholic prelates, Bishop Robert Barron, who referenced Bishop Fulton Sheenʼs saying that America’s Declaration of Independence amounts to a “declaration of dependence” upon God.

“Lord, on this great national anniversary we gather to rededicate our country to you,” Barron prayed. “Not because you need our devotion, but because by praising you we receive grace upon grace.”

Recalling that the United States rests on theological foundations, Barron concluded his prayer by declaring that “as a bishop of the Catholic Church and as a proud American, I make bold to dedicate our country once more to God and to say Lord, let the light of thy face shine upon our land. Amen.”

The church has thrived through historic events and turbulent times, even as it was being rebuilt. In 1924, one of the largest Ku Klux Klan (KKK) rallies ever recorded saw 100,000 participants tramp through Jacksonʼs streets, and parish tradition holds that the Knights of Columbus kept vigil at the construction site to protect it from KKK vandalism.

As he prepares to wrap up his 15-year tenure as pastor of the parish, Father Timothy Nelson reflected on the churchʼs enduring vitality: “Our church is not a relic but a dynamic part of the present, enriched by a legacy of faith.”

Located west of Detroit, Jackson has long been a railroad hub with ties to the automobile industry. St. Mary’s is one of three current parishes, following a consolidation of several others. Following decades of a strong Polish-American presence, demographic changes have included the growing influx of Hispanic families. Children of the latter now make up about a quarter of the enrollment at St. Mary School.

St. Mary’s three spires dominate the skyline, reaching up 180 feet in an imposing Romanesque style. Long regarded as one of the most beautiful churches in Michigan, it features magnificent stained-glass windows fashioned in Innsbruck, Austria, an apse mosaic of Our Lady Star of the Sea, murals of the apostles, and Carrara marble altars and Communion rail.

The latter embellishments were donated by George Washington Hill, president of the American Tobacco Co., as a memorial to his young wife, Aquinas Heiler Hill, who died in 1925. The green and red colors in the mosaics around the high altar repeat the original colors used on packs of Lucky Strike cigarettes.

The present structure replaced an earlier church, with its cornerstone laid on Sept. 23, 1923. Construction faced delays because of a prolonged labor strike at limestone quarries. The era was also marred with social unrest, including the Ku Klux Klan and its virulent anti-Catholicism and racism. Construction was not completed until May 31, 1926, at a cost of $375,000. Then-Auxiliary Bishop Joseph C. Plagens came from Detroit to officiate the dedicatory Mass.

Among its treasures is a unique stained-glass rose window memorializing the fallen of the first world war, including nuns who tended the wounded. “The window shows not only the American soldiers and sailors of the war, but even their enemies who reach out to Jesus rising above them,” Nelson said as he gave a tour of the magnificent church.

Restoration of the windows cost $1 million and was made possible through the generosity of parishioners and benefactors, including the Eisele Family Foundation. St. Mary’s is depicted in “Buildings of Michigan” by Kathryn Bishop Eckert as one of the most notable in the Mitten State.

Now 74, Nelson will step down as pastor this summer. A former cardiologist, he will continue his ministry as chaplain of the St. Pio Medical Center in nearby Howell, which is part of a Vatican-authorized healthcare network inspired by St. Pio of Pietrelcina (Padre Pio). He will be succeeded by Father John Vinton, who will continue offering Traditional Latin Masses and Spanish-language Masses.

St. Mary’s serves about 1,086 families, including the active Sacred Heart of Jesus Hispanic Community.

Nelson said: “The school is necessary for parish life” and is the most diverse parochial school in the area.

The parish’s liturgical life shows both continuity and renewal. The Traditional Latin Mass, celebrated every Sunday, is accompanied by Gregorian chant and organ led by Aine Schroeder, a student at nearby Hillsdale College. Schroeder said the Gregorian schola will chant the “Ave Maria” and “Salve Regina” at the centennial concert.

Dispelling concerns that the Latin liturgy is stuck in the past, Nelson said: “I agree with Pope Benedict XVI that the past continues to be lived in the present. We are bringing it into the future.”

For longtime parishioner Mary Belknap, a fourth-generation member who serves on the parish guild, St. Mary’s is a spiritual home and a place of encounter.

“It’s one of the hallmark parishes in the state. People come from all over to see us and our beautiful church,” she said. Bridging the gaps between communities came easily to educator Belknap, who said that, having been raised in poverty as a child, she has experienced life on the margins, and “I personally reach out to embrace the goodness of other people.”

The parishʼs centennial observance will commence with a concert on May 29 and culminate in a solemn Mass on May 31 — exactly 100 years after its first Mass — to be celebrated by Bishop Earl Boyea.

Mary Malewitz, parish music director since 1981, is organizing the opening concert, which will feature adult and school choirs, a Hispanic choir, and a Gregorian schola. Between each performance, parishioners will sing their favorite hymns.

“St. Mary’s has brought glory to Michigan for generations,” she told EWTN News.

State Attorney General Jennifer Davenportʼs office said in a May 15 press release that Joseph Manzi pleaded guilty to “one count of second-degree theft by unlawful taking and one count of third-degree filing a fraudulent tax return.”

The state had charged Manzi in the theft in October 2025 after staffers at St. Leo the Great Parish in Lincroft had discovered “numerous unauthorized charges that were determined to allegedly be for Manzi’s personal benefit.” Manzi had left his position as the parish finance director earlier in the year.

In its May 15 release the state said its investigation determined that the 78-year-old Manzi “fraudulently used St. Leo’s credit cards to make unauthorized purchases and payments.” Such purchases included “personal medical and dental payments,” “sports event tickets,” “chartered fishing trips” and a Cadillac SUV.

In October 2025 the state had alleged Manzi stole around $500,000, though on May 15 it said its investigation had revealed nearly $675,000 in thefts, while “further investigation identified additional stolen funds.”

The state said it was recommending a five-year sentence in New Jersey state prison.

Manzi in August 2025 had also been the subject of a separate civil lawsuit by the St. Leo the Great Parish which accused him of stealing more than $1.5 million from the church.

New Jersey said this week that part of Manziʼs plea agreement includes $1.2 million in restitution to the church.

Emerson Wells, studying for the Archdiocese of Louisville, placed second overall with a personal best marathon time of 2:23:52, averaging 5 minutes, 30 seconds per mile for the entire 26.2 mile race. It’s a time that would have won him first place nine out of the last 10 years of the race. 

The seminarian-led Verso l’Alto Track Club team won first place in the 4-person relay, clocking a finish time of 2:30:39 and outstripping the second place relay team by nearly 20 minutes.

Seminarian Chatham Anderson, studying for the Diocese of Columbus, started the team off, followed by Nick Merk, then Kevin Bonfield, and finally Cincinnati seminarian David Adamitis brought the team over the finish line. 

These five men each donned the Verso l’Alto Track Club jersey, signalling to all who passed by that they ran for a reason.

St. Pier Giorgio Frassati, canonized by Pope Leo XIV on Sept. 7, 2025, made the Italian phrase Verso l’Alto known around the world. It translates to “To the heights.” The Verso l’Alto Track Club, open to all local Catholic men (with a qualifying 5k time of 18 minutes) combines the pursuit of excellence in running and virtuous brotherhood — all ordered toward the glorification of God

Wells, a lifelong runner, said this was the most systematic training he’s used to prepare for a marathon thus far.

“I had a few weeks where I got up to 80 miles a week, which was workable, but it was definitely tough with the schedule and I had to use my breaks to take advantage of that,” he said.

The seminarians stick to a strict schedule of prayer, worship, instruction, and study each day. Wells trained with a goal of running the race in 2 hours, 25 minutes or less. “I knew I had to really focus on the hills if I was going to be successful.”

In conjunction with his rigorous training, Wells had a few other tools to keep him going toward his goal.

“There was a group of sisters from the Children of Mary that came down to my home parish in Louisville. One of them — Sister Imelda Joy — told me that she and two of her other sisters were going to be making perpetual vows soon.”

On May 3, to be exact, the same day as the Flying Pig Marathon.

“When she told me that, I was like, full stop. Thatʼs what Iʼm going to be offering this race for.”

At moments when the race became tough, Wells remembered those sisters and asked for our Lady’s intercession for them.

Wells’ devotion to Mary is made visible by the brown scapular he wore during the race. “I wear the scapular every day; itʼs part of my devotional life.” The scapular didn’t stay in place as he ran through the streets of Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky. “I actually like having it on during runs because you can kind of see itʼll fly around quite a bit, and I’m reminded that Mary is the way and sheʼs the perfect exemplar of what it means to be truly devoted to God and contemplation,” Wells said.

The men of the Verso l’Alto Track Club share a common goal: physical excellence ordered toward spiritual growth.

“You can be excellent in a given activity and excellent in your faith. Theyʼre not exclusive to each other, but actually mutually affirming,” Adamitis said. “I think that thereʼs a real good among Christians to have ambitious goals according to their talents and to ask the Lord for enlightenment about what their abilities are and how they can use those abilities to glorify His name to bring others into His kingdom.”

The message as these men ran “to the heights” was clear: the pursuit of excellence is the pursuit of God.

“When we strive to have perfection in those areas of physical health and strength, it should really encourage us to have greater care for what matters the most, and thatʼs our soul and our union with God,” said Adamitis.

Both Wells and Adamitis plan to continue running. Through the Verso l’Alto Track Club, they aim to amplify their mission throughout Cincinnati, Northern Kentucky, and the Archdiocese at large.

Catholic high school students and adults are invited to compete in the club’s summer cross country challenge on Aug. 7, 2026. Adamitis explained the main motivation is to bring Catholic high school students together so that they can have a sense of a greater community. “So that these high school students can see, ‘As I get older and I eventually graduate high school, I can still pursue running at a high level and stay Catholic.’ Thereʼs an element of excellence to both of those things that continue beyond high school.” 

“Our athletic pursuits are ultimately ordered for the glorification of God,” Adamitis said. “Cincinnati is a wonderful running city, and we can shift the idea to where itʼs not just running, but itʼs running for the glorification of God.”

This article was originally published by The Catholic Telegraph, of the Archdiocese of Cincinnati, and is reprinted here, with adaptations, with permission.

The agreement, first announced by Paxton’s office May 15, resolves a years-long investigation of the hospital that began after whistleblower allegations surfaced claiming the hospital continued performing sex-change procedures on minors in secret even after state lawmakers made such procedures illegal.

According to the Justice department , the Houston-based hospital has agreed to pay more than $10 million in civil penalties and damages for allegedly falsely billing Medicaid and other insurers for these “pediatric sex-rejecting procedures.”

The federal government alleges the hospital violated the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, the False Claims Act, and federal fraud and conspiracy laws.

Under the terms of the settlement, Texas Children’s will no longer provide “gender-transition” interventions, including puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones, to minors, per Texas law.

The hospital also agreed to establish a multidisciplinary detransition clinic to offer restorative medical care to patients who previously underwent such procedures.

All services at the new clinic will be funded by Texas Children’s, the largest children’s hospital system in the country, and will be provided free of charge for the first five years.

The settlement also requires the permanent termination and revocation of privileges for five physicians who performed these interventions.

The hospital is permanently barred from rehiring or credentialing the doctors and must implement new compliance measures, including bylaw changes that will automatically revoke privileges for any physician who violates Texas law prohibiting such procedures on children.

“Under my watch, I will investigate and bring the full force of the law against any Texas hospital that abuses children with harmful medical interventions to ‘transition’ kids,” Paxton said.

Following the publication of a directive by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott that transgender procedures on minors that could be considered “child abuse” under existing state law, Texas Children’s announced in 2022 that it would cease “sex-change” therapies and procedures, citing concerns that these practices were potentially illegal.

In 2023 Texas passed a law that explicitly banned puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and gender-transition surgeries for minors under 18.

Nevertheless, at least three doctors associated with Texas Children’s — Richard Roberts, David Paul, and Kristy Rialon — continued to perform “sex-rejecting” procedures on children throughout 2022 and 2023, according to whistleblower evidence published by Christopher Rufo, a fellow at the Manhattan Institute.

Rufo claimed that Rialon had been performing surgeries on minors ranging in age from 15 to as young as 1.

Calling the settlement “historic,” Paxton said it “will ensure that the deranged child mutilators who hurt our kids are fired and held accountable.”

According to Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, the DOJ “will use every weapon at its disposal to end the destructive and discredited practice of so-called ‘gender-affirming care’ for children.”

The Department of Justice noted that Texas Children’s cooperated with the investigation and took proactive steps that contributed to the resolution. The claims resolved in the settlement remain allegations, with no determination of liability.

“I am grateful that Texas Children’s wants to be part of the solution and no longer the problem,” said Brett Shumate, assistant attorney general for the Civil Division.

The Catholic Psychotherapy Association (CPA) is encouraging its members worldwide to request a diocesan-wide Mass intention this weekend (May 15–17) for individuals struggling with mental illness and for the mental health professionals who serve them.

Dr. Terry Braciszewski, CPA president-elect, told EWTN News that during May — observed by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops as Mental Health Awareness Month — he hopes to “bring hope to those afflicted with mental illnesses and awareness to the wonderful Catholic professionals that can help them.”

Braciszewski noted the growing number of Catholics experiencing mental health challenges and their increased vulnerability to spiritual attacks. Quoting the St. Michael prayer, he acknowledged that “the evil one is prowling about the world seeking the ruin of souls,” but added, “there’s hope.”

The association, which now has more than 600 members globally, aims to support mental health practitioners who integrate psychological practice with full fidelity to Catholic teaching on the human person.

Separately, Catholic psychologist Dr. Greg Bottaro of the CatholicPsych Institute has launched a nine-day Pentecost Novena for Healing, centered on a newly composed Litany for Mental Health. The novena runs from May 15 to May 23 and concludes on Pentecost Sunday, May 24.

Bottaro told EWTN News he hopes the initiative will help Catholics and others to bring their struggles directly to God.

“The world needs the truth our faith has to offer, and we need to learn how to speak better to the needs of the world,” he said. “If we can pray in the language of today’s needs, we can open to deeper healing for both ourselves and the world that is far from the faith.”

The litany names common fears, lies people live by (such as the need to earn love or that control equals safety), and clinical issues including anxiety, depression, compulsion, scrupulosity, and trauma.

Bottaro hopes praying it will “bring a wave of healing to thousands of people around the world.”

St. Dymphna, patroness of those suffering from mental illness

St. Dymphna, a 7th-century Irish martyr, is one of the best-known patrons of mental illness.

When she was fourteen, she consecrated herself to Christ and took a vow of chastity. Tradition holds that after her Christian mother’s death, her pagan father’s mental health declined dramatically and he sought to marry her. She fled to Belgium, where he eventually found her and she was martyred around age 15.

Miraculous healings attributed to her intercession led to her canonization in 1247 and the development of a major shrine and healing tradition in Geel, Belgium.

The Catholic University of America

The Catholic University of America (CUA) will confer honorary degrees on three “notable individuals” at its May 16 commencement ceremony, including Lisa Brenninkmeyer, Dr. John Bruchalski, and Iqbal Z. Quadir.

Brenninkmeyer is the founder and CEO of Walking with Purpose, a Catholic Bible study group for women and girls, while Bruchalski is the founder of Tepeyac OB-GYN and Quadir is a distinguished fellow at the CUA’s Busch School of Business “who has pioneered technology-based and for-profit entrepreneurship for the economic empowerment of low-income people,” according to a press release from the university.

Monsignor James Patrick Shea, president of the University of Mary, will serve as commencement speaker.

Thomas More College of Liberal Arts

Thomas More College of Liberal Arts in New Hampshire will award former Wyoming Catholic College President Glenn Arbery, PhD, and his wife, Virginia, with honorary doctorates at its commencement ceremony May 16.

“Thomas More College is glad to have old friends and teachers — Glenn and Virginia Arbery — returning,” Thomas More College President William Fahey said. “A community is healthy when it remembers and honors important moments and people of its history. The Arberys are well known and influential teachers and scholars at several institutions of higher learning, but our college was profoundly shaped and ennobled by their learning and generous hearts. We are glad to have them return for this most solemn and joyful of occasions.”

University of Mary

Catholic businessman and lawyer Timothy Busch received an honorary degree from the University of Mary in Bismarck, North Dakota, in addition to delivering the commencement address during the university’s April 25 commencement.

The university also honored Dan Butler, chairman of the board of trustees at the University of Mary, as well as his wife, Heather Butler, who co-chaired the university’s 2030 Capital Campaign with U.S. Sen. Kevin Cramer, R-North Dakota, raising over $100 million for the university’s advancement, according to the university.

Franciscan University of Steubenville

Busch also served as commencement speaker for graduates of science and professional programs at Franciscan University in Steubenville, Ohio, and received an honorary doctorate in humane letters during its May 9 commencement.

Busch’s NAPA Institute co-founder, Father Robert Spitzer, SJ, also delivered a commencement address for graduates from the arts, humanities, and social scientists at the university. Spitzer received an honorary doctorate in catechetics and evangelization.

University of Dallas

In addition to delivering the school’s commencement address, Cardinal Timothy Dolan, archbishop emeritus of New York, will receive an honorary degree of doctor of humane letters from the University of Dallas.

“Cardinal Dolan is one of the Church’s most joyful and widely respected shepherds, and we are honored to welcome him to the University of Dallas,” said President Jonathan J. Sanford said in a press release. The university’s commencement ceremony will take place May 16.

Benedictine College

Peter Cancro, the founder and chairman of the popular sandwich chain Jersey Mike’s, will receive an honorary doctor of humane letters at Benedictine College’s May 16 commencement.

Cancro, who is renowned for his charitable contributions to faith-based organizations, including a $5 million gift to Ave Maria School of Law, will also deliver the commencement address.

Ave Maria University

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis received an honorary degree from Ave Maria University during its May 9 commencement ceremony. 

“The faith does not depend on what is fashionable or who holds power. It is, in fact, the truth that ultimately will set you free,” DeSantis said during his speech, urging Ave Maria’s class of 2026 to put on “the full armor of God” as they go out into the world.

Walsh University

EWTN “Real Life Catholic” host Chris Stefanick received an honorary doctorate of applied theology at Walsh University’s May 2 commencement ceremonies.

“Your formation as men and women of character is the primary end of Catholic education,” Stefanik told graduates during his speech at the Ohio Catholic school. “The secondary end is the formation of useful citizens. Your greatest achievement will forever be marked not by what you do, but by what you do for others.”

Walsh University also conferred an honorary doctorate of applied engineering upon Michael White, former principal director for hypersonics in the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering.

Now, Pope Leo says, it can help us, along with the full body of social teaching, to navigate the developments of artificial intelligence.

Today, on the 135th anniversary of the release of Rerum Novarum — published May 15, 1891 — EWTN News takes a look at the significance of this encylical.

As European society was grappling with the impact of the industrial revolution and the rise of socialist ideology in the late 1800s, Pope Leo XIII issued a papal encyclical that expressed empathy with the discontentment of laborers but outright condemnation of the socialist movements of the time.

The encyclical emphasizes a need for reforms to protect the dignity of the working class while maintaining a relationship with capital and the existence of private property.

The message was promulgated fewer than 50 years after Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels published “The Communist Manifesto” in 1848 and after Pope Pius IX denounced both socialism and communism in his 1849 encyclical Nostis et Nobiscum.

Pope Leo XIII’s teachings can still help inform readers on the proper relationship between labor and capital.

Leo XIII writes of a “great mistake” embraced by the socialist-leaning labor movements, which is the notion that “class is naturally hostile to class” and “wealthy and the working men are intended by nature to live in mutual conflict.”

This view, he asserts, is “so false … that the direct contrary is the truth.”

“It [is] ordained by nature that these two classes should dwell in harmony and agreement, so as to maintain the balance of the body politic,” Leo XIII teaches. “Each needs the other: Capital cannot do without labor, nor labor without capital.”

The pontiff, who reigned from 1878 until his death in 1903, saw a need “in drawing the rich and the working class together” amid the strife brewing between these groups throughout the continent.

This can be done, he said, by “reminding each of its duties to the other” and “of the obligations of justice.”

For the laborer, this includes a duty “fully and faithfully to perform the work which has been freely and equitably agreed upon” and to never destroy property, resort to violence, or riot to achieve a goal.

For the wealthy owner, this includes a duty to “respect in every man his dignity as a person ennobled by Christian character” and to never “misuse men as though they were things in the pursuit of gain or to value them solely for their physical powers.”

“The employer is bound to see that the worker has time for his religious duties; that he be not exposed to corrupting influences and dangerous occasions; and that he be not led away to neglect his home and family or to squander his earnings,” Leo XIII says.

Leo XIII contends that employers must pay workers the whole of their wages and workers must do all of the work to which they agreed. But, in the context of wages, he adds that this “is not complete” because workers must be able to support themselves and their families.

“Wages ought not to be insufficient to support a frugal and well-behaved wage-earner,” Leo XIII writes. “... If a workman’s wages be sufficient to enable him comfortably to support himself, his wife, and his children, he will find it easy, if he be a sensible man, to practice thrift, and he will not fail, by cutting down expenses, to put by some little savings and thus secure a modest source of income.”

In certain cases, Leo XIII encourages the intervention of government, such as when “employers laid burdens upon their workmen which were unjust,” when “conditions [were] repugnant to their dignity as human beings,” and when “health were endangered by excessive labor.” He adds that such interventions should not “proceed further than [what] is required for the remedy of the evil.”

Leo XIII also expresses support for “societies for mutual help” and “workingmen’s unions” but also exerts caution against any associations that promote values contrary to Catholic teaching. He encourages the creation of associations that are rooted in Catholic teaching.

The pontiff says there is much agreement “that some opportune remedy must be found quickly for the misery and wretchedness pressing so unjustly on the majority of the working class.” Yet, he accuses socialists of “working on the poor man’s envy of the rich” to “do away with private property” and turn “individual possessions” into “the common property of all, to be administered by the state or by municipal bodies.”

“Their contentions are so clearly powerless to end the controversy that were they carried into effect the working man himself would be among the first to suffer,” Leo XIII says. “They are, moreover, emphatically unjust, for they would rob the lawful possessor, distort the functions of the state, and create utter confusion in the community.”

Using this remedy to resolve poor conditions for the laborer, the pontiff contends, “is manifestly against justice” because “every man has by nature the right to possess property as his own.” He further argues that government intrusion into the rights of property and the right to provide for one’s family is “a great and pernicious error.”

“That right to property … [must] belong to a man in his capacity of head of a family; nay, that right is all the stronger in proportion as the human person receives a wider extension in the family group,” Leo XIII says. “It is a most sacred law of nature that a father should provide food and all necessaries for those whom he has begotten; and, similarly, it is natural that he should wish that his children, who carry on, so to speak, and continue his personality, should be by him provided with all that is needful to enable them to keep themselves decently from want and misery amid the uncertainties of this mortal life.”

Rerum Novarum set the foundations of Catholic social teaching about labor. Other popes have since built on the teachings laid out in the encyclical, including Pope Pius XI’s 1931 encyclical Quadragesimo Anno on the 40th anniversary of Leo XIII’s writing and Pope John Paul II’s 1981 encyclical Laborem Exercens on the 90th anniversary.

This story was first published on Sept. 2, 2024, and was updated on May 15, 2025 and again on May 15, 2026.

“Itʼs the oldest novena in the life of the Church, going back to the time where Jesus ascended into heaven, in that time where he promised the Holy Spirit upon the apostles, and where the apostles gathered together in the Upper Room with the Blessed Virgin,” EWTN Chaplain Father John Paul Mary, MFVA, said. “You can read the exact account in the Acts of the Apostles itself, where they awaited the coming of the Holy Spirit after our Lord ascended into heaven.”

Father John Paul, who will lead the novena each day, explained that each day will feature a meditation on the Holy Spirit, along with a consecration prayer. “After the consecration prayer, there’s a prayer for the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit,” he said, noting that there is also a fruit of the Holy Spirit connected with each day.

The Seven Gifts of the Holy Spirit are wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety, and fear. The nine fruits associated with each day of the novena are love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

“The Holy Spirit is really the way in which salvation is carried out in the life of the Church,” Father John Paul said. “Christ is known through the power of the Holy Spirit and that nobody can really say Jesus is Lord, Saint Paul says, unless it is in the Holy Spirit.”

Father John Paul emphasized the importance of praying to the Holy Spirit leading up to Pentecost as the disciples did with the Blessed Virgin Mary, so that “we can receive the Holy Spirit” like they did.

While some may regard the Holy Spirit as the “forgotten person of the Trinity,” Father John Paul said “itʼs really the Holy Spirit that changes us, that conforms us into Jesus himself and makes us other Christs in the world.”

In April, the Holy Father spoke out against executions several times, including to pro-life advocates in his hometown of Chicago, whom he urged to continue seeking the abolishment of the death penalty in the United States.

Earlier, speaking aboard the papal plane while returning from his apostolic trip to Africa, Leo also called for an end to the death penalty.

“I condemn the taking of people’s lives,“ he said. ”I condemn capital punishment. I believe that human life is to be respected and that all people — from conception to natural [death] — their lives should be respected and protected.”

In September 2025, meanwhile, he argued that supporting the death penalty is antithetical to the pro-life position.

Can executions ever be permitted?

Leoʼs repeated entreaties against the death penalty articulate a relatively new but forceful magisterial teaching in the Catholic Church, one promulgated in 2018 by Pope Francis.

The revision to the Catechism of the Catholic Church acknowledges that while the death penalty was “long considered an appropriate response” to serious crimes, in the modern world there is “an increasing awareness that the dignity of the person is not lost even after the commission of very serious crimes.”

“In addition, a new understanding has emerged of the significance of penal sanctions imposed by the state,” the catechism says, while also pointing to “more effective systems of detention” that “ensure the due protection of citizens” but “do not definitively deprive the guilty of the possibility of redemption.”

The Catechism bluntly refers to the death penalty as “inadmissible because it is an attack on the inviolability and dignity of the person.”

The 2018 revision of the Catechism came after several decades of shifting views within the Catholic Church on the death penalty. In his 1995 encyclical Evangelium Vitae, Pope John Paul II wrote that punishments for crimes “ought not go to the extreme of executing the offender except in cases of absolute necessity,” specifically “when it would not be possible otherwise to defend society.”

“Today however, as a result of steady improvements in the organization of the penal system, such cases are very rare, if not practically nonexistent,” the pope wrote.

The most recent revision of the Catechism at that time stated that authorities must adhere to “bloodless means” of punishment if they are “sufficient to defend human lives against an aggressor.”

Pope Benedict XVI, meanwhile, continued advocating against capital punishment, urging in 2011, for instance, that societyʼs leaders should “make every effort to eliminate the death penalty and to reform the penal system in a way that ensures respect for the prisoners' human dignity.”

Though the teaching appears uncomplicated, it would ostensibly seem that the Church does leave at least some room for dispute over whether the death penalty can ever be morally applied — such as in cases where an “effective system of detention” does not exist and there is no other way of properly detaining a dangerous criminal.

Moral theologians told EWTN News that the issue is still somewhat in flux, though the teaching of the Church leaves little wiggle room at least in countries such as the United States.

Father Phillip Brown, the president and rector of St. Maryʼs Seminary in Baltimore, noted that “natural law ... acknowledges the right of self-defense,” including “violence and killing to defend oneself.”

But such extreme measures can only be used “as a last resort when other means to stop unjust aggression would not be capable of doing so.”

Brown suggested that societies may “evolve” to the extent that “it is never necessary to kill a person to protect society from further harm, because modern societies have the means to protect themselves from such dangers in less egregious ways than killing the offender.”

He noted, however, that such an understanding gives rise to “a concomitant duty on the part of society to deal with offenders in a humane way, and certainly ways that are not less humane than killing them.”

Monsignor Stuart Swetland, the president of Donnelly College in Kansas City, Kansas, said theologians are “still working to figure out” what “inadmissible” means in this context.

“We’re in that transition stage where we have a true development of doctrine,” he said.

Still, he argued, the moral implications of capital punishment itself leave little room for uncertainty.

“For the death penalty to be carried out, someone must have a will to directly kill another person,” he said. “And I think it’s always wrong to directly kill somebody — to intend death.”

He distinguished between deliberately causing someoneʼs death and inadvertently bringing about death when using violence to defend oneself or others.

“In war, and in police actions, the intent is to stop a perpetrator in carrying out unjust aggression,” he pointed out. “If we capture [a soldier or a prisoner], we treat them humanely.”

"We’d much rather deter than wound, wound than maim, and maim than kill," he continued. "With the death penalty we have to intend the death penalty. I think that intent is immoral."

He further drew a line between what he described as “prudential judgments” that reflect Church teaching on the one hand and the unambiguous teaching of the Church on the other.

He pointed out, for instance, that the U.S. bishops advocate “certain policies about immigration.” The national bishops' conference has regularly petitioned the government to carry out “just immigration policies.”

“Can you disagree with those? I think so,” Swetland said. Yet the Churchʼs recent promulgation on the death penalty is less ambiguous, he said.

“It says the Church ‘teaches’ this about the death penalty,” he said. “I think the way itʼs presented, itʼs more than a policy.”

Burden of proof for death penalty ‘extraordinarily high’

Father Thomas Petri, OP, STD, a Dominican friar and theologian who served as the president of the Pontifical Faculty of the Immaculate Conception at the Dominican House of Studies, told EWTN News that the 2018 revision of the Catechism generated “a lot of confusion about the status of a state’s authority to impose on the death penalty on a criminals who commit extremely grave crimes.”

Petri pointed out that the Catechism does not state that the death penalty is “intrinsically evil.” However, such actions, he said, “are never moral, regardless of the times, circumstances, or intention of those who do them.”

“The Church teaches that every person is created in the image of God and called to eternal communion with him,” he said. “This is our fundamental human dignity that cannot be taken away. Our dignity can grow with good and holy actions but can also diminish with sinful actions, though it can never be destroyed. Our fundamental dignity always remains.”

The priest argued that the “best way to understand the revision is that the Church is exercising a prophetic judgment about the moral direction of civil society.”

“It is not simply saying that the state never had authority to impose capital punishment,” he said. “It is saying that the conditions of punishment should now be ordered so that even the worst offender’s fundamental dignity remains publicly recognized, society is protected, and the guilty are not definitively deprived of the possibility of repentance and redemption.”

Under that teaching, he said, “one should not speak casually of circumstances in which the death penalty remains permissible.”

“The burden of proof would be extraordinarily high,” he argued. “At most, one could imagine a case in which no nonlethal means exist to protect innocent life. But that would be an exceptional breakdown of ordinary penal order, not a normal application of Catholic teaching today.”

The U.S. is among the few developed countries in the world that still regularly carries out executions. The countryʼs Catholic bishops, particularly state bishops' conferences, regularly appeal the government to halt executions, especially in states like Texas and Florida where capital punishment is frequent.

Still, a majority of U.S. Catholics are supportive of the death penalty, though polling indicates that Catholics who attend Mass regularly are much more likely to oppose the death penalty than Catholics whose attendance is less frequent.

In December 2025, meanwhile, a group of Catholics and other advocates formed the U.S. Campaign to End the Death Penalty. Krisanne Vaillancourt Murphy, the executive director of the anti-death penalty group Catholic Mobilizing Network, which is taking part in the campaign, told EWTN News that the initiative represents "an exciting expression of the growing momentum and interest in ending capital punishment in the United States.”

“The impressive range of organizations involved in [the campaign] represents the incredibly effective efforts happening across the country for this critical mission,” she said.

Titled “Only One Thing Is Necessary: How Catholic Families Can Strive To Be United in This Life and the Next”, the letter emphasizes that strong Catholic families are essential to the future of both the Church and society.

The archbishop says he wrote the letter in response to parents who desire the Church’s help in raising faithful families. Drawing from more than three decades of ministry, he notes the deep love and concern he has witnessed, recalling families "who want nothing more than to lead their families to Jesus" and who "instinctively understand and model what Jesus taught Martha in the midst of her anxiety: ‘only one thing is necessary,’ being with Jesus (Luke 10:42).”

Hebda emphasizes that the future of the Church and society depends on strong families, quoting St. John Paul II:

“The family is the first and vital cell of society. In its own way it is a living image and historical representation of the mystery of the Church. The future of the world and of the Church, therefore, passes through the family ... As the family goes, so goes the nation, and so goes the whole world in which we live.”

The archbishop outlines the urgent challenges facing modern families, such as “a general societal decline in religious practice and church affiliation,” the prioritizing of money over relationships, increasing fatherlessness, mental illness, and addictions, loneliness, and declining marriage and birthrates.

“Raising a Christian family has never been easy,” he writes. “On top of those perennial challenges, today’s families are faced with challenges particular to our time.”

Of the ubiquity of screens, the archbishop asks: “What would our families and our society look like if we spent but a fraction of what we spend on screens looking at the faces of our family members?”

Despite the “uphill battle” families are fighting, he urges them not to lose heart: “Dear families, please take heart. You are not alone. The Church journeys with you, the Church loves you, and the Church needs you!”

In the letter, Hebda encourages sacramental marriage as the foundation, calling on parishes to become “families of families,” and to help Catholic families by providing concrete support for passing on the faith.

In this context, the archbishop invites the entire archdiocese to read and discuss the document over the coming year (July 2026–June 2027) as a pastoral priority. 

Holy examples of family life

The archbishop draws on the examples of several holy couples, including the Ulma family, who along with their six children were killed by the Nazis in 1944 for giving refuge to Jews. Pope Francis beatified the whole family in 2023. 

He calls the parents of St. Thérèse of Lisieux, Saints Louis and Zélie Martin, who were the first married couple to be canonized together, relatable models of ordinary holiness.

He said the hardworking, middle class couple “made it a point to do three things very well: to love each other and their children unconditionally; to teach their children about God and the virtuous life; and to worship God at home and in the parish.”

He encourages families to do the same.

Hebda commends the letter to Our Lady, Seat of Wisdom, ending it with a prayer to the Holy Family of Nazareth composed by Pope Francis.

The full letter is available as a free PDF download, in addition to a Spanish-language version, an audio version and a printed keepsake edition. Parish resources and small-group guides are also provided on the website.

In the interview, Rubio acknowledged the Catholic Church’s longstanding position advocating for peace and the avoidance of war while drawing a clear distinction between the Church’s role and the duties and responsibilities of nation states.

While saying the U.S. also seeks peace, Rubio affirmed that the countryʼs position on war is “different,” because it is “a nation state.”

“For a nation state, which is different from a religious office, for a nation state there are threats to your security and to the well-being of your people that have to be addressed, ideally through diplomatic means, but there are conflicts and issues in the world that cannot be solved diplomatically, no matter how hard you try,” Rubio said, pointing to years of failed diplomacy with Iran and other past examples.

He said there have not been “any results” despite “over a decade of work done to try to diplomatically solve Iran’s desire and ambition to have a nuclear weapons program."

Recalling World War II, Rubio asked: “What was the diplomatic solution for … Adolf Hitler, as an example? There was none, right? And unfortunately, it led to real war. So that’s where I think the realm of the geopolitical is different.”

Nevertheless, he emphasized that Catholics, like himself, must balance their faith with their duty to their nation.

“We are obviously guided by our faith, and we’re instructed by our faith. That’s the compass by which we live our lives,” Rubio said. “We also have an obligation to the national security of our country, and that has to be taken into account. That’s our primary job — is to keep Americans safe. And that’s why we’re involved in Iran. That’s why we’re involved in anything we do around the world.”

Rubio described his meeting with the American pontiff as positive and unusually straightforward.

“This is an American pope. We spoke for over an hour. We talked about a lot of topics," Rubio said.

Rubioʼs remarks come amid ongoing U.S. actions in Iran and public differences between the Trump administration and the Holy See on the conflict.

Ahead of Rubio’s meeting with Leo, President Trump told EWTN News that the secretary of state’s key message should be: “Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon.”

On May 5, Pope Leo XIV said “The Church has spoken for years against all nuclear weapons, so there is no doubt there.”

On May 8 the State Department posted a clip of Rubio on X following his meeting with the pope, in which he said “of course” he had wanted “to hear the perspective of the most important, far-reaching religious leader in the world … on what his bishops and others are hearing in the Western Hemisphere, the plight of Christians in Africa … and Lebanon.”

On the subject of the U.S. position on the Iran war, Rubio said “We’re capable of having that position and expressing that position clearly and also working cooperatively, as we have for decades, with the Vatican, with the Catholic Church.”

“We were able to talk about these different areas of the world where they have a presence, where they are engaged, and we are as well,” Rubio said.

The Supreme Court on May 14 blocked a lower court ruling that would have required in-person dispensation of mifepristone. Chemical abortions, which rely on mifepristone and misoprostol, are the most common form of abortion in the U.S., making up at least 63% of abortions in the U.S. according to the Guttmacher Institute.

A New Orleans federal appeals court had restricted the mail-order prescriptions, ruling that these undermined Louisiana state law. The Supreme Court issued a temporary stay on enforcement of this ruling amid the ongoing lawsuit after abortion drug manufacturers Danco Laboratories and GenBioPro made emergency requests.

The stay expired at 5 p.m. ET May 14, and shortly after, the Supreme Courtʼs order was released. The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals will decide the merits of Louisianaʼs challenge.

In May of 2025, U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. ordered a review of the abortion drug mifepristone, which is ongoing. Activists, lawmakers, and state attorneys general have also been calling on the FDA to do a safety review of the drug, citing severe risks to women’s health.

The American Association of Pro Life OBGYNs (AAPLOG) said they will continue “to fight for life-affirming healthcare” in light of the decision.

“Mail-order abortions are bad for women’s health, an abusive tool for predators, and lethal for our preborn patients,” AAPLOG said in a statement shared with EWTN News.

“Today’s decision from the U.S. Supreme Court sends a clear message to the American public: the profits of the abortion industry and unregulated abortion have taken priority over the health and safety of our patients,” the statement read.

“We are confident that once a decision is made based on the merits of the case, common-sense safety regulations will be reinstated,” AAPLOG declared.

Turner testified before the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Transportation, Housing, and Urban Development on May 14 about proposed decreases in HUD’s budget from $84.2 billion to $73.5 billion for fiscal 2027.

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-New York, pressed Turner about the overdue 2025 Annual Homeless Assessment Report and the Point‑in‑Time Count, both of which provide yearly data on people experiencing homelessness and help lawmakers track trends and allocate aid.

Gillibrand acknowledged “shared goals” to stop funneling aid to programs that do not help people get out of homelessness but challenged Turner on his approach, especially in light of the missing reports.

“If your way, not funding all these programs, is better than the way this committee has tried to address homelessness over decades, I want to see the results,” she said. “Where is the homeless data report? It is over a year late, and that would give us the data to see if your theory about how to address homelessness actually works.”

Turner, a former NFL cornerback, pointed to rising homelessness under the Biden administration despite “record funding,” and blamed the “unprecedented” government shutdown and the administration being in “constant litigation” for the lack of reports.

“Mr. Secretary, I think youʼre obfuscating. What way does litigation slow down your report?” Gillibrand said.

“I just want to know, did you get the number down? Do we have 700,000 homeless still, or is it a million or 1.5 million?” Gillibrand asked. She said the lack of reports “doesnʼt let this committee do our job.”

Ranking member Sen. Patty Murray, D-Washington, also pressed Turner over decreases in HUD’s Continuum of Care grants despite requirements mandated in fiscal 2026. “Mr. Secretary, our bill requires you to get this money out,” she said. “All of the data, all of the research shows that economic factors are driving homelessness.”

Federal grants from HUD’s Continuum of Care directly support Catholic Charities’ ability to provide services to homeless people.

“Access to safe, decent housing is a fundamental human right that should be attainable for all of God’s children, and the Catholic Charities network remains committed to addressing the rising rates of homelessness and the severe lack of affordable housing around the nation,” Kevin Brennan, vice president for Catholic Charities USA, told EWTN News.

“Catholic Charities USA and its 169 member agencies use the Annual Homeless Assessment Report and the Point-in-Time Count as tools in evaluating the level of homelessness locally and across the country, seeking to alleviate that urgent need,” he said.

“Importantly, these reports also help state housing finance agencies set goals and priorities in Qualified Allocation Plans (QAPs), including tax credits and set-aside programs,” he said. “Catholic Charities agencies use this data to comment on local QAPs and advocate for directing resources to those with the greatest need,” he said.

Housing rule change

Turner also faced questions on May 12 at a U.S. House Appropriations subcommittee hearing about a proposed HUD rule change that could cause families to lose federal housing assistance if some family members lack legal immigration status.

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) has voiced opposition to the rule change, warning it would “require these families to make a heartbreaking choice — endure family separation so that eligible members could continue to qualify for critical subsidized housing programs or stay together and forfeit any housing assistance.”

At the hearing on May 12, Rep. Adriano Espaillat, D-New York, asked Turner how the housing rule might impact mixed-status families.

Turner said, “Families have to make good decisions within the family. If you’re making a decision that impacts your family negatively, then that’s a decision that the family made, not the U.S. government.”

In a May 13 statement, the State Department said the United States “continues to seek meaningful reforms to Cuba’s communist system, which has only served to enrich the elites and condemn the Cuban people to poverty.”

According to the statement, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the U.S. also made numerous private offers to provide assistance to the Cuban people, including support for free satellite internet and $100 million in direct humanitarian assistance.

“The regime refuses to allow the United States to provide this assistance to the Cuban people, who are in desperate need of assistance due to the failures of Cuba’s corrupt regime.”

“The decision rests with the Cuban regime to accept our offer of assistance or deny critical life-saving aid and ultimately be accountable to the Cuban people for standing in the way of critical assistance,” the department indicated.

The funds would go toward numerous programs and organizations, many run by the Church, that provide shelter, food assistance, safe water, and home repair throughout the nation.

Funds would require a ‘regime change’

“The offer is $100 million, but it basically requires the Cuban government to surrender and undergo regime change,” Archbishop Thomas Wenski of Miami told EWTN News. “The government doesnʼt seem to be willing to do that yet.”

“Cuba right now is experiencing a total economic collapse because of the restrictions that the U.S. government has put on the importation of oil and fuel to the island,” he said. “So throughout the island, people are undergoing extended periods of blackouts of no electricity. And no fuel to put in the cars.”

The State Department previously “offered $3 million and then later on, another $6 million of assistance to Cuba,“ Wenski said. It was ”directed through the Catholic Church, and the Catholic Relief Services of the United States Bishops Conference was the conduit.”

Along with the Archdiocese of Miami, “they brought supplies – hurricane relief supplies, food, and supplies to the Caritas agency of the Catholic Church in Cuba,” he said.

“Itʼs still ongoing,” he explained. “That total $6 million has not been spent yet because it takes a while to get the stuff distributed, because if you donʼt have any electricity and you donʼt have any gas and youʼre lacking transportation, itʼs hard to get stuff from the port to the affected areas.”

"The $6 million or $3 million is a drop in the bucket,” he said. “The $100 million is in the market of what Cuba really needs,” but the funds “would imply that there would be serious fundamental changes in Cuban governance that would probably go to the state, or the state would be involved in it.”

Following the offer, Rubio said the U.S. will give Cuba “a chance,” but he does not believe there will be a regime change.

“There is no economy in Cuba,” he said in an interview with Sean Hannity on Fox on May 13. Any wealth in Cuba “doesn’t go to the people” and “doesn’t even go to the government.”

Rubio said the wealth is controlled by a private company "owned by military generals. They take all the money.”

“This is a country where people are literally now eating garbage from the streets, but they have a company that controls all of the moneymaking there that’s sitting on $15-16 billion,” Rubio said.

“I believe – it’s my personal opinion – you cannot change the economic trajectory of Cuba as long as the people who are in charge of it now are in charge of it,” he said.

“That’s what’s going to have to change because these people have proven incapable. I hope I’m wrong,“ he said. ”But I don’t think it’s going to happen. I don’t think we’re going to be able to change the trajectory of Cuba as long as these people are in charge in that regime.”

The May 14 report found that 61% of U.S. adults said religion is losing influence in American life. In contrast, 37% said it is gaining influence, a figure that has risen 19 percentage points in the past two years.

The data in the report, “How Americans Feel About Religion’s Influence in Government and Public Life,” was based on Pew’s survey conducted April 6–12 that included more than 3,500 U.S. adults with questions about religion’s influence in society, Christian nationalism, and the relationship of church and state.

The survey has an overall margin of error of plus or minus 1.9 percentage points. Pew’s studies on the public’s views about religion’s role in public life are an ongoing effort of the center’s research and therefore included past data for comparison with the 2026 findings.

The research found that 65% of Catholics reported they have a positive view of religion, 12% said they have a negative view, and 22% they have a neutral or unclear view.

Overall, 55% of U.S. adults expressed a positive view of religion’s role in American life and either said religion’s influence is growing and this is a good thing (21%) or that its influence is declining and this is a bad thing (34%).

Christian influence in government

The survey found a small increase in the percentage of Americans who said they want the government to declare Christianity the nation’s official religion. Overall, 17% of U.S. adults express this view, up from 13% in 2024.

Most Americans said the government should promote Christian moral values without making Christianity the official religion (43%) or that the government should not establish an official religion or promote Christian values (38%).

Of adults, 28% said the Bible should have influence on U.S. law. The majority of Catholics surveyed (55%) also reported it should have influence, compared with the 43% who said it should not.

The survey also found that the public’s familiarity with the term “Christian nationalism” has grown since Pew last asked about the topic. There has been a 14 percentage point increase in the share of U.S. adults who reported they have heard or read about Christian nationalism, from 45% about two years ago to 59% in 2026.

Overall there is more of a negative view of Christian nationalism than positive with 31% of U.S. adults who reported they have an unfavorable view of it and 10% who view it favorably.

The survey also asked about the separation of church and state and found there has been a decline from 19% in 2021 to 13% in 2026 in the share of Americans who want the government to stop enforcing separation of church and state, but the percentage of Americans who said the government should enforce it has remained at 54%.

Nearly half of Catholics (49%) reported that the federal government should enforce separation of church and state, and 16% said it should stop enforcing it.

Most people (79%) reported they do not think churches and other houses of worship should endorse candidates during elections. Similarly, 66% also said churches should keep out of political matters.

Political affiliationʼs influence on views of religion in government

The survey found a large difference in respondents' perspectives based on their political affiliation.

Of Republicans and independents who lean toward the Republican Party, 75% expressed a positive view of religion’s influence in American life compared with 38% of Democrats and Democratic leaners who do so (38%).

Similarly, 45% of Republicans and Republican leaners said the Bible should have influence on U.S. laws, whereas 13% of Democrats and Democratic leaners said the same. Most Republicans (74%) and Democrats (84%) agree that churches should not endorse political candidates.

Most Democrats (68%) said the federal government should enforce the separation of church and state, compared with 42% of Republicans.

The celebration of the solemnity of the Ascension of the Lord is an annual opportunity for us not only to focus on heaven, where the Lord Jesus has gone to prepare a place for us (Jn 14:1-6) and on the joy that “eye has not seen, ear has not heard, nor the human heart conceived,” which “God has prepared for those who love him” (1 Cor 2:9; Is 64:4), but also on the implications Jesus’ return to the Father means for each of his followers.

Jesus could have stayed on earth until the end of time as the Good Shepherd, crisscrossing the globe after every lost sheep, saving them one by one. As he ascended, however, he placed his own mission in our hands, commanding us to “go into the whole world and proclaim the Gospel to every creature” (Mk 16:15).

He took the training wheels off our discipleship and removed any excuses we might have to pass the buck of sharing and spreading the faith. “You will be my witnesses,” he told us, “in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8).

His confidence and trust in us, despite all our weaknesses, is astonishing. He wanted to incorporate us into — actually entrust to us — his mission of the redemption of the world.

But he didn’t leave us orphans (cf. Jn 14:18).

St. Luke gives us a beautiful image and detail, that Jesus “led them out as far as Bethany, raised his hands, and blessed them. As he was blessing them, he parted from them and was taken up to heaven” (Lk 24:50-51).

Jesus departed in the very act of blessing us. Pope Benedict XVI in his trilogy “Jesus of Nazareth” commented on how the risen Jesus in heaven is perpetually blessing us.

“Jesus departs in the act of blessing,” he states. “He goes while blessing, and he remains in that gesture of blessing. His hands remain, stretched out over this world … [which] expresses Jesus’ continuing relationship to his disciples, to the world. … That is why the disciples could return home from Bethany rejoicing. In faith we know that Jesus holds his hands stretched out in blessing over us. That is the lasting motive of Christian joy.”

Jesus is continuously blessing us with every spiritual blessing in the heavens (cf. Eph 1:3). He’s seeking to transform us into his incarnate benediction of the world.

The great manifestation of that blessing is the descent of the Holy Spirit, for whose renewed coming we pray in the annual decenarium from the 40th to 50th days of Easter. St. Luke recalls Jesus’ words: “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be my witnesses” (Acts 1:8). That’s the power, the blessing, that came down upon the Church on Pentecost.

During the Last Supper, Jesus said something startling: “I tell you the truth: It is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you” (Jn 16:7). He was describing the incredible gift of the Holy Spirit’s presence as a blessing even greater than his own. That’s what the Church, huddling around the Blessed Virgin Mary, incessantly begs for after the Ascension.

The Holy Spirit helps us to fulfill, and not shirk, the awe-inspiring responsibility Christ has given us. This is the duty to give witness that Christ is alive, that he is the Way, the Truth, the Resurrection, and the Life, that he came to give us life to the full, so that his joy may be in us and our joy may be complete; he came to give and leave us the peace of his kingdom in a war-torn world; he came to help us and others to change our lives, to believe wholeheartedly in the good news, and to follow him, so that where he is we also may be and so that we might recognize that God the Father loves us just as much as he loves Jesus (cf. Jn 14:6; 11:25; 10:10; 15:11; 14:27; Mk 1:15; Jn 16:27; 15:9).

That’s a message and a mission that many no longer easily receive.

Whether they think erroneously that science has disproven faith, or the problem of evil has refuted the possibility of a good God, or the clergy sex-abuse scandals have invalidated the Church’s witness, or the frigidity with which so many secularized Christians live their faith has revealed its incapacity to inspire, or a score of other possible reasons people cite to deaden the appeal of Christian faith and life, it’s clear that proclaiming the Gospel effectively to every creature is challenging work — but so was trying to convince down-to-earth first-century pagans and Jews that a crucified carpenter had not only risen from the dead but also was the Savior of the world. The same blessing of the Holy Spirit that made their joint witness fruitful desires to give tandem testimony with us.

One of the most effective ways to do so is through charity.

Back in 1985, the future Pope Benedict XVI gave a radio address in which he focused on the “delightfully naive pictures” of the Ascension in which the disciples are looking upward as Jesus is passing through the clouds and all we see are Jesus’ feet, the same feet the women wanted to grasp onto after the Resurrection. Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger commented that we need to recognize his feet and reverence them in disguise in the feet around us as we follow Christ’s example of washing the feet of others just as he cleansed the apostles’ feet in the upper room.

“The true ascent of mankind,” he stated, “takes place precisely when a man learns to turn in humility to another person, bowing deeply at his feet in the position of one who would wash the feet of the other. It is only in the humility that knows how to bow down that can raise a person up.”

In order to ascend, we need first to descend humbly in acts of corporal and spiritual works of mercy, including passing on the faith to those who don’t know it or who reject what they mistakenly believe it to be.

Christ’s ascension is meant to lead us on an exodus not merely in the future, but here and now: an exodus from the self toward God and others, a journey from fear to trust, a passover from the flat earth of a world without God to the multidimensional reality of Christ’s kingdom.

Christ’s ascension is meant to lift up our hearts as it helps us to drop to our knees. It is meant to help us to grow to full stature in Christ as we respond to his confidence in making us his missionaries, together with the Holy Spirit, to renew the face of the earth. It is meant to fill us, even now, with lasting joy.

This story was first published by the National Catholic Register, EWTN News' partner and updated for EWTN News English.

In his book “De Roberto a León” (“From Robert to Leo”) published by Editorial Mensajero, Armando Lovera, a native of Iquitos, Peru, provides data and insights that illuminate the maternal influence in the life of the pope.

1. Two of Mildredʼs sisters embraced religious life.

A testament to the importance of the Catholic faith in Mildred’s family is that two of her sisters, Louise and Hilda, decided to consecrate their lives to God by joining religious congregations.

Louise Eugenie, born in 1903 in New Orleans, was the first to take this step: at the age of 19, she entered the Sisters of Mercy. Years later, in 1928 at the age of 21, Hilda followed in her footsteps by professing vows in the Sisters of Charity of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

2. Mildred lost her father as a young teen.

Mildred’s childhood was marked by the loss of her father, Joseph Martinez, who died on July 31, 1926, when she was just 14 years old. His death left her mother, Louise, a widow who was then compelled to enter the workforce. Mildredʼs mother, the popeʼs maternal grandmother, found employment at a nut and candy factory, where she worked as a taster, evaluating the quality of the products.

At the same time, Mildredʼs older sisters, Irma and Margaret, also assumed responsibility for the family’s financial support, thereby enabling the family to stay afloat during a time of exceptional hardship.

3. She was educated to be an independent woman.

In the 1920s, Mildred began her studies at Immaculata High School, a Catholic girls' school founded by the congregation to which Hilda belonged.

The education she received was not limited to academics. The institution sought to prepare women capable of navigating public and professional life, fostering both intellectual development and Christian values, with a clear commitment to women’s independence.

4. She had a life dedicated to books and education.

At the age of 27, Mildred began working at a public library, performing administrative tasks. Three years later, she enrolled at DePaul University to study library science. She completed a postgraduate degree in education in 1949.

Her passion for books was not limited to the professional sphere. For years, she volunteered at the parish library: She organized the collections, cataloged books, and arranged public readings to promote culture.

5. She was a sacred music singer and distinguished soloist.

Mildred possessed a deep and powerful contralto voice. This was no mere hobby: she performed as a soloist in numerous sacred music concerts.

In 1941, Mildred even appeared at the prestigious Chicagoland Music Festival, held at Soldier Field before an audience of over 100,000 people. Her repertoire centered on sacred music, and among her performances, her rendition of the “Ave Maria,” a demanding piece even for professionals, stood out in particular.

6. The first time her future husband met her family nearly ended in disaster.

The family history also yielded some singular anecdotes. Mildred met Louis, who would become her husband and the father of the future pope, at DePaul University in 1948. However, his first meeting with her family nearly ended in disaster.

Invited to their home, Louis arrived feeling unwell; he took some medication and shortly thereafter fainted in front of everyone. Joking around, one of the sisters declared that he wouldnʼt be back. But he did return. Months later, on Jan. 25, 1949, they were married at Holy Name Cathedral in Chicago and began their life together in Dolton, Illinois.

7. Her electric organ ended up in Trujillo, Peru.

In addition to singing, Mildred played the piano and actively participated in her parishʼs music ministry.

Years later, her electric organ was transported by her son, then-Father Robert Prevost, some 3,500 miles to the Augustinian formation house in Trujillo, the city where he worked from 1988 to 1999.

8. Mildred played a decisive role in her sonʼs vocation.

Mildred was a pillar in the spiritual life of the Prevost family, which lived parish life as if it were an extension of their own home. Their home served as a regular gathering place for priest friends, whom she would often invite over for a meal. These gatherings, characterized by simplicity and warmth, helped to kindle in the heart of the youngest of her three sons his desire to be like them.

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News. It has been translated and adapted by EWTN News English.

“Contrary to news reports, Pope Leo has not bestowed an exclusive special honor on the Iranian ambassador to the Holy See,” the U.S. Embassy to the Holy See said in a May 13 social media post. “This decoration is given to all accredited ambassadors to the Holy See after 2+ years of service and has been standard practice for many years.”

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The post comes after Iranian state media outlets reported that the Vatican honored Iran’s ambassador, Mohammad Hossein Mokhtari, with an award for “strengthening diplomatic ties and serving the cause of peace and dialogue.”

The Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) reported that Pope Leo XIV awarded the “Vatican’s highest diplomatic honor to Iran’s ambassador” for his “efforts to promote peace, dialogue, and bilateral relations.”

The report further claimed that “officials praised the Iranian embassy’s activities in advancing peaceful coexistence, wisdom, tolerance, and interfaith dialogue,” and that in the official decree, Leo “expressed appreciation for Ambassador Mokhtari’s services in strengthening ties with the Holy See." The Holy See has had diplomatic relations with Iran since May 1953.

The U.S. Embassy explained that the award given to Mokhtari “is a personal recognition and does not imply support or opposition to any policy or country.”

“Thirteen ambassadors were recently given this recognition. Previous U.S. ambassadors have all received the same,” the post noted. “Finally, the decoration was not given in person by the pope.”

Vatican News reported that Mokhtari was among 13 ambassadors to receive the recognition for completing two years of service. The ceremony was presided over by Archbishop Paolo Rudelli, substitute for general affairs at the Secretariat of State, who presented insignia and official parchments to the diplomats.

The Holy See Press Office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Daily Wire commentator Michael Knowles, a Catholic, described the incident as “a reminder about the ubiquity and power of propaganda, especially when we’re talking about the Iran war.”

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“It’s all propaganda,” Knowles said. “The Iranians are clearly making hay out of this rote procedure that the Vatican presented.”

“Acting Commissioner Kyle Diamantas is personally committed to delivering on President Trump’s pro-life and pro-family agenda at the FDA,” Andrew Nixon, deputy assistant secretary for media relations at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, told EWTN News.

“Both he and other administration officials will continue regularly interacting with stakeholders in this community to inform FDA decision-making,” he said.

Diamantas is serving as acting commissioner after the May 12 resignation of Commissioner Marty Makary, who faced criticism from within the pro-life movement for failure to impose stricter regulations on the  abortion drug mifepristone.

Some pro-life leaders celebrated Makary’s departure but grew concerned about Diamantas because court records show him serving as legal counsel for a Planned Parenthood affiliate while working at the Baker Donelson law firm. The case was related to a property dispute.

Alex Bruesewitz, an adviser to President Donald Trump, dismissed the concern in a post on X, saying he was a junior associate assigned to the case but removed himself because of his pro-life beliefs.

Within the past two days, Diamantas has reached out to some pro-life advocates, including March for Life President Jennie Bradley Lichter. A spokesperson for Live Action confirmed he had scheduled a conversation with Live Action President Lila Rose as well.

“Within a few hours of being handed this big new job, he was getting on the phone with pro-life leaders and that in itself, I think, is a really encouraging sign of where his priorities are going to be,” Lichter told “EWTN Pro-Life Weekly” host Abigail Galván.

Lichter said she spoke with Diamantas about her concerns with mifepristone, specifically about “the lack of safety, the lack of guardrails, [and] its easy availability.”

Under Makary, the FDA launched a study to review the 2023 deregulation of mifepristone, but so far no action has been taken to increase restrictions. Rather, in that same month, the FDA approved a generic version of the drug.

Based on her conversation, Lichter said, “I think weʼre going to see real movement” on that study and “I think that the cause of life is going to have, you know, a real champion at the FDA” under Diamantas’ leadership.

“I feel really comfortable that he is bringing in strong pro-life commitments and a commitment to transparency and to moving with all deliberate speed to take a close look at mifepristone and then take decisive action based on what that study shows,” she said.

Mark Harrington, president of Created Equal, told EWTN News he had not received a call from Diamantas and expressed hesitations about his leadership of the FDA, saying his efforts “could just be viewed as nothing more than damage control.”

“Talk is cheap,” he said. “But personnel is policy, and the fact that Diamantas [reportedly] represented Planned Parenthood makes me skeptical that he will advocate for the full mifepristone safety study. We will trust but verify. Action needs to be taken now on the abortion drug.”