Thousands participate in the March For Life in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 19, 2024. / Credit: ROBERTO SCHMIDT/AFP via Getty Images

CNA Staff, Jan 23, 2025 / 06:00 am (CNA).

With tens of thousands of pro-life Americans gathering for the 52nd annual March for Life in Washington, D.C., on Friday, EWTN will provide live coverage of the event. 

The national pro-life event marks the anniversary of Roe v. Wade, drawing together thousands to protest abortion and advocate for life. This year’s theme is “Every Life: Why We March.”

Thursday: March for Life prayer vigil 

5 p.m. ET: EWTN’s National March for Life coverage kicks off before the march with a night of prayer at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception. The National Prayer Vigil for Life is held annually on the eve of the March for Life, bringing thousands of pilgrims across the nation together to pray for an end to abortion. At 5 p.m. ET, EWTN will stream the opening Mass and Holy Hour of the National Prayer Vigil for Life as pro-lifers pray and prepare for the upcoming march.

Friday: March for Life 

8 a.m. ET: The all-night prayer vigil will conclude with the closing Mass of the National Prayer Vigil for Life at the shrine, televised live by EWTN. 

9:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. ET: EWTN will air coverage of the March for Life, featuring speakers including Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, Rep. Chris Smith from New Jersey, and Live Action President Lila Rose. 

Professional surfer and author of “Soul Surfer” Bethany Hamilton is also set to speak as well as abortion survivor Josiah Presley and former abortionist turned pro-life obstetrician Dr. Catherine Wheeler. 

Toledo Bishop Daniel Thomas — chair of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Pro-Life Activities — is also set to speak at the event as well as Archbishop Joseph Naumann of Kansas City, Kansas. 

The March for Life pre-rally concert will begin at 11 a.m. followed by the rally at noon. The march will begin at 1 p.m. at the rally point near the Washington Monument and conclude at the U.S. Capitol. 

4 p.m. ET: EWTN will broadcast the second annual “Life Fest Mass,” sponsored by the Sisters of Life and the Knights of Columbus as part of the Life Fest Rally. The Life Fest Rally begins the evening before the March with live music from Matt Maher and other Christian bands. The Mass will be celebrated by Monsignor James Shea, Cardinal Seán Patrick O’Malley, and Archbishop William Lori of Baltimore. 

8 p.m. ET: EWTN will livestream the Walk for Life Prayer Vigil and Mass on the West Coast, which opens the Walk for Life coverage. Bishop Oscar Cantú will celebrate Mass at St. Dominic’s Catholic Church in San Francisco, and Sister Bethany Madonna of the Sisters of Life will give a reflection during Eucharistic adoration. 

Saturday: Walk for Life West Coast

2:30 p.m. ET: The 21st annual Walk for Life West Coast will begin with a rally followed by the walk. EWTN will livestream coverage of the walk. Father Mark Mary, MFVA, and Brother John Therese Marie, MFVA, will report from the walk, speaking to participants.

U.S. Department of Homeland Security Seal. / Credit: Sundry Photography/Shutterstock

CNA Staff, Jan 22, 2025 / 17:45 pm (CNA).

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) under President Donald Trump this week rescinded Biden-era guidelines that previously required Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents to seek their superior’s approval before arresting people at or near “sensitive locations” such as churches, hospitals, or schools.

The “sensitive locations” policy began in 2011 with a memo from then-ICE director John Morton. It precluded ICE agents from carrying out immigration enforcement actions in locations like hospitals, places of worship, schools, or during events such as weddings or parades unless there is an urgent need, such as a person who poses an imminent threat or if the agents have sought higher approval to do so.

The Biden administration later issued an expanded definition of “sensitive locations,” which added places like playgrounds, homeless shelters, emergency response centers, and domestic violence shelters.

The order was signed by Acting Homeland Security Secretary Benjamine Huffman, who is serving as head of the agency pending the confirmation of South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem.

“This action empowers the brave men and women in CBP [Customs and Border Protection] and ICE to enforce our immigration laws and catch criminal aliens — including murders [sic] and rapists — who have illegally come into our country,” a DHS spokesperson said Jan. 21.

“Criminals will no longer be able to hide in America’s schools and churches to avoid arrest. The Trump administration will not tie the hands of our brave law enforcement and instead trusts them to use common sense.”

The possibility of the policy change had been telegraphed in December, when three unnamed sources stated that Trump planned to change the policy as soon as his first day in office as part of his broader immigration agenda. Trump on Monday signed a series of executive orders on immigration, including several that put into motion his campaign promises to close the border to asylum seekers and to carry out mass deportations of people residing in the U.S. illegally — a plan numerous Catholic leaders have criticized as unjust. 

Catholic and other Christian leaders had spoken out with “grave concern” over Trump’s plans to end the “sensitive locations” policy. The Catholic bishops of Arizona in December argued that raids at “sensitive locations” like churches would violate basic human rights, including religious freedom and the right to family unity, and undermine societal stability by discouraging undocumented immigrants from seeking essential services.

Commenting on the then-prospective change, the Catholic Legal Immigration Network Inc. (CLINIC), a group launched by the U.S. bishops in 1988 to support community-based immigration programs and represent low-income migrants, said in December it is “deeply concerned about any changes that would undermine the safety and well-being of immigrants and their families.”

“Sensitive locations — such as houses of worship, schools, and hospitals — are sanctuaries where individuals seek solace, education, and critical care without fear of intimidation or detention,” Anna Gallagher, CLINIC’s executive director, said in a statement to CNA.

“This policy has long recognized the importance of these spaces for fostering trust and community stability. Rescinding it would not only disrupt families and communities but could also deter individuals from accessing essential services, such as education and health care, or practicing their faith freely … We call for the preservation of protections at sensitive locations to ensure immigrants and their families can live without fear and fulfill their basic needs, including the practice of religion.”

Luis Fernando Figari founded the Sodalitium in Peru in 1971. / Credit: David Ramos/ACI Prensa

Lima Newsroom, Jan 22, 2025 / 17:15 pm (CNA).

The Sodality of Christian Life has reported that between May 2016 and December 2024 it provided reparations to 83 people who were victims of sexual, psychological, and power abuse through out-of-court settlements.

According to the report published Tuesday on its website, of the total number of cases given reparations, 15 were for the sexual abuse of minors between ages 11 and 17, 18 were for the sexual abuse of adults, and 50 were for other types of abuse.

The document was initially presented on Jan. 15 to the members of the general assembly of the apostolate held in Aparecida, Brazil.

The text indicates that the greatest number of cases that were given reparations were for abuse committed in the 1990s and 2000s, with 39 cases in the first period and 29 in the second.

The report also indicates that the reparations to which the victims agreed consist of academic and therapeutic support and financial compensation, and that the total amount is $5,348,000.

Of this amount, $336,000 was used for therapy and $5,012,000 for compensation.

In its report, the Sodalitium Christianae Vitae (SCV, by its Latin acronym) reiterates its request for forgiveness and affirms that “it is an institutional duty to take concrete actions to repair the damage caused, beyond what civil or canonical justice may determine.”

“Reparation aims to be an act of justice that seeks to contribute to the person who has experienced some type of abuse by a member or former member of the Sodalitium being able to heal the wound that his or her dignity suffered,” the report states.

On Monday, the SCV confirmed that it was dissolved by the decision of Pope Francis.

According to the Infovaticana portal, the dissolution decree “refers to the immorality of the founder, Luis Fernando Figari, as an indication of the nonexistence of a founding charism and, therefore, the lack of ecclesial legitimacy for the permanence of the institution.”

Figari was expelled from the SCV by Pope Francis in August 2024. The Holy See had already sanctioned him in 2017 and prohibited him from having contact with any member of this society after it was proven that he committed sexual and power abuse.

The full text of the dissolution decree is not yet known.

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.

Seminarians at St. Aloysius Gonzaga in 2022. / Credit: Courtesy of the Diocese of Matagalpa

Lima Newsroom, Jan 22, 2025 / 16:45 pm (CNA).

The seminary of the Diocese of Matagalpa, Nicaragua, has been confiscated by the country’s dictatorship. The confiscation was first reported by the Nicaraguan newspaper Mosaico CSI. According to the outlet, at the time of the confiscation there were at least 30 students in formation at the seminary.

St. Aloyisius Gonzaga Major Seminary of Philosophy is located in the Diocese of Matagalpa, whose exiled bishop is Rolando Álvarez, who has been living in exile since January 2024 after serving almost one year in prison on the charge of treason.

In a post on X, researcher Martha Patricia Molina denounced that in addition to confiscating the seminary, the government of President Daniel Ortega has “also increased surveillance of priests in the diocese.” Molina accused the dictatorship of aiming “to completely stop priestly formation” and “annihilate and eliminate the Diocese of Matagalpa.” 

In addition to the seminary, the regime also confiscated on Jan. 16 the La Cartuja Pastoral Center of the Diocese of Matagalpa.

In a statement to ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner, Molina, the author of “Nicaragua: A Persecuted Church,” explained what she believes could happen with the confiscated seminary.

“I think the same thing will happen as happened with the rest of the properties that the dictatorship has confiscated from the Catholic Church: They will occupy them to convert them into a public building or they will sell the property, or they will convert it into a school. We don’t know what the ultimate goal of this occupation is.”

The truth, she warned, “is that the dictatorship continues to violate and persecute religious freedom in Nicaragua.”

After recalling that the chancery, Álvarez’s residence, has already been confiscated, the researcher in exile warned that in Matagalpa, the bishop is working only with 30% of his clergy,” who are also “under greater surveillance.”

“The priests live in fear of being “abducted and later expelled from the country. I believe that this is part of this whole diabolical plan of the dictatorship, of wanting to ‘atheize’ the country and then ‘satanize it,’” Molina charged.

“They want to uproot the faith of the Catholic people. The Diocese of Matagalpa, the laity, are very Catholic, they very much love the Catholic Church. And so [the regime] intends to completely eliminate the presence of the Church.”

Matagalpa and Estelí

Matagalpa is the diocese of Álvarez, who was arrested, kept under house arrest, and later sentenced to 26 years in prison in a questionable judicial process. He was deported in January 2024 to Rome, where he now lives in exile.

Estelí has ​​not had a bishop since mid-2021. Álvarez was then appointed apostolic administrator, and in his absence Father Frutos Valle was appointed as administrator “ad omnia,” allowing him to carry out all ordinary functions of pastoral governance except those reserved to a bishop. Valle has also been detained by the dictatorship.

Molina told ACI Prensa that Jan. 26 will mark six months since the priest has been confined to a formation house that he cannot leave. The reasons for his detention are not known, “although the dictatorship has no reason other than the fact that he is a Catholic priest in order to repress him.”

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.

null / Credit: FreshStock/Shutterstock

CNA Staff, Jan 22, 2025 / 16:15 pm (CNA).

The Vatican announced this week that Pope Francis has erected a new diocese in China and appointed Father Anthony Ji Weizhong as its first bishop.

The pope decided last October to suppress the Diocese of Fenyang in mainland China, which was originally erected in 1946 by Pope Pius XII, and at the same time erect the new Diocese of Lüliang.

Diocesan borders have been an area of dispute between the Vatican and China in the decades since the Chinese Communist Party came to power and started to redraw diocesan lines, seeking to bring them more in line with Chinese administrative boundaries.

Indeed, the territory of the newly-created Diocese of Lüliang conforms to the territory of the city of Lüliang, located about 400 miles southwest of Beijing in western Shanxi province. It will serve a total population of 3.3 million people, of whom approximately 20,000 are Catholics. A total of 51 priests and 26 religious sisters serve in the diocese. 

Pope Francis appointed Weizhong as bishop of Lüliang on Oct. 28, 2024, having approved Weizhong in the context of the “Provisional Agreement,” better known as the Vatican-China deal, which appears to give the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) some ability to choose episcopal candidates.

Weizhong, 51, was ordained a priest in 2001 for the Diocese of Fenyang. He studied in China and in Germany and served in Fenyang as deputy parish priest, head of the diocesan pastoral center, and as vicar general. He was ordained on Jan. 20 at the Cathedral Church of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

The see of the Fenyang Diocese remained vacant after the death of Bishop Huo Cheng, who spent 14 years in prison during the Cultural Revolution and had led the Church of Fenyang in communion with the Holy See since 1991, AsiaNews reported.

Weizhong is the second Chinese bishop to be ordained since the Vatican in October renewed its “Provisional Agreement” with China on the appointment of Catholic bishops for an additional four years, until at least Oct. 22, 2028. Shortly after the Vatican renewed the deal last fall, Matthew Zhen Xuebin was consecrated as the new coadjutor bishop of Beijing, having been appointed in August. 

Originally signed in September 2018, the provisional agreement was previously renewed for a two-year period in 2020 and again in October 2022. The terms of the agreement have never been made public, though Pope Francis has said it includes a joint commission between the Chinese government and the Vatican on the appointment of Catholic bishops, overseen by Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin.

The Holy See has acknowledged that China has several times violated the terms of the agreement by unilaterally appointing Catholic bishops in Shanghai and the “Diocese of Jiangxi,” a large diocese created by the Chinese government that is not recognized by the Vatican.

Chinese officials have reportedly ordered the removal of crosses from churches and have replaced images of Christ and the Virgin Mary with images of President Xi Jinping, according to a 2024 report from the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF).

USCIRF also reports that the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) “sinicization of religion” campaign has led to censored religious texts, clergy forced to preach CCP ideology, and the required display of CCP slogans in churches.

null / Credit: sergign/Shutterstock

CNA Staff, Jan 22, 2025 / 15:45 pm (CNA).

The New York Supreme Court ruled on Tuesday that a Nassau County law prohibiting men from competing in female sports at a county-run facility is constitutional.

State Supreme Court Judge Bruce Cozzens ruled against the Long Island Roller Rebels, a women’s roller derby league that had sought to block a Nassau County law banning men from participating in women’s sporting events at the county’s parks and recreational facilities.

In his decision, the judge wrote that he “does not find that Local Law 121-24 excludes transgender women and girls from the public facilities based on their gender identity, and the plaintiffs have not shown discrimination under the Human Rights Law and the Civil Rights Law.” 

Cozzens ruled that the law was not discriminatory as those who identify as transgender can still play in coed sports leagues. In the decision, Cozzens emphasized the risk of injury for women if men are allowed to play on their sports teams.

“The plaintiff is not only asking that transgender athletics be included on female teams but also that they not disclose the transgender identity,” Cozzens wrote. “Potentially that creates an even greater risk to the females since they would not even be aware (nor it is assumed would they be permitted to inquire) if a player was a biological male.” 

“Common sense requires weight classification for wrestling and boxing clearly to protect the safety of the individuals. Common sense requires the same here,” Cozzens continued. 

Gabriella Larios, staff attorney at the New York Civil Liberties Union, opposed the decision in a statement, calling it discriminatory. 

“This decision is an outlier among the many courts to have considered the same question,” Larios continued. “It is also inconsistent with long-standing state law, which makes clear that Nassau’s ban unlawfully discriminates against transgender girls and women, as well as the teams that welcome them.” 

“This ban leaves a lasting stain on the county’s government and legislature, which have been relentless in their efforts to shut trans people out of sports,” Larios said. 

Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman welcomed the decision, calling it “common sense.” 

“I’m very happy that State Supreme Court Judge Bruce Cozzens ruled that Nassau County’s local law banning biological males from playing on female sports teams is constitutional and that we did abide by the law,” Blakeman said in a statement shared with CNA. 

“As we’ve said all along, it’s just common sense,” Blakeman said. “Biological males should not play in female sports. They have a competitive advantage. It’s unfair, and it’s also unsafe.” 

Earlier this month, a federal court blocked a Department of Education rule banning discrimination against a person’s self-asserted “gender identity.” In addition, the Nassau decision closely followed a recent executive order signed by President Donald Trump affirming the biological reality of sex.

Blakeman said he was grateful that federal courts recently ruled in a similar manner.

“The federal courts have recently ruled the same way, so we have the federal courts and the state courts saying that you can make this distinction,” Blakeman noted. “We’re very happy that both courts have agreed with us.” 

“I’m gratified that we were the first in America to do it, and I think we set the tone for the rest of the nation,” Blakeman said.

Archbishop Timothy Broglio, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, speaks at the USCCB fall plenary assembly Nov. 14, 2023. / Credit: USCCB video

CNA Staff, Jan 22, 2025 / 15:15 pm (CNA).

The president of the U.S. bishops’ conference on Wednesday criticized some of President Donald Trump’s initial executive orders on key issues including immigration and capital punishment, warning that harm could be done to “the most vulnerable among us.”

Trump upon taking office on Monday signed a series of executive orders that included tough restrictions on immigration, a directive in favor of the death penalty, a withdrawal from a key global climate pact, and an order affirming the reality of biological sex.

U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) president Archbishop Timothy Broglio on Wednesday said in a statement that he took issue with some of the orders, calling them “deeply troubling.”

“Some provisions contained in the executive orders, such as those focused on the treatment of immigrants and refugees, foreign aid, expansion of the death penalty, and the environment, are deeply troubling and will have negative consequences, many of which will harm the most vulnerable among us,” Broglio wrote.

Regarding the executive order on biological sex, Broglio expressed agreement with Trump.

“Other provisions in the executive orders can be seen in a more positive light, such as recognizing the truth about each human person as male or female,” Broglio said. 

Broglio stressed that neither the Catholic Church nor the USCCB is aligned with “any political party.” The Church’s teachings “remain unchanged” regardless of political leadership, he said. 

The prelate pointed to the 2025 Jubilee Year and said the U.S. bishops prayed that “as a nation blessed with many gifts, our actions demonstrate a genuine care for our most vulnerable sisters and brothers, including the unborn, the poor, the elderly and infirm, and migrants and refugees.”

“It is our hope that the leadership of our country will reconsider those actions which disregard not only the human dignity of a few, but of us all,” the archbishop said. 

The USCCB said it would publish further information on the executive orders on its website. 

Trump’s withdrawal from the Paris climate accord represented the second time the president has pulled the country from the global environmental pact; he first withdrew from the agreement in 2020. Then-President Joe Biden rejoined the agreement in 2021. 

Trump’s pro-death penalty order was largely seen as a rebuke of Biden’s earlier policies on the death penalty, including a 2021 moratorium on federal executions as well as Biden’s December 2024 commutation of 37 prisoners on federal death row.

Trump’s immigration orders, meanwhile, were the culmination of several years’ worth of political promises to crack down on illegal crossings at the southern U.S. border. The president has vowed to enact major deportations of illegal immigrants living in the U.S.

Earlier this month Pope Francis strongly condemned Trump’s mass deportation plans in the United States, saying “if this is true it is a disgrace.”

null / Credit: Inna Dodor/Shutterstock

CNA Staff, Jan 22, 2025 / 14:45 pm (CNA).

Arlington Bishop Michael Burbidge on Wednesday urged Catholic families to offer a “heroic witness” to love by rejecting the practice of in vitro fertilization (IVF), which the prelate called “contrary to justice [and] replete with moral difficulties.”

In a pastoral letter released on Wednesday, Burbidge acknowledged the “natural desire for family” as well as the challenges faced by couples who are struggling with infertility. 

Yet the Virginia bishop said he has observed with concern the growing popularity of IVF both as a means of conceiving children and as a means to facilitate surrogacy. 

In the present day it “seems as if an extraordinary number of couples” have difficulty conceiving children, the bishop said. He acknowledged that the Catholic Church is supportive of numerous licit means of addressing infertility, including NaPro technology. 

IVF — which represented a “revolution of medicine” when it debuted in 1978 — nevertheless presents serious moral problems, Burbidge argued. 

Chief among them, the bishop noted, is how the procedure “both creates life and destroys life,” insofar as it often kills many human embryos even as it may produce one that goes on to grow through a full pregnancy.

“For every one of the more than 12 million children born by means of IVF since 1978, there are many tens of millions more missing brothers and sisters who have been either deliberately destroyed, experimented upon, or frozen in liquid nitrogen and denied their natural right to the fullness of their development,” the bishop said. 

The bishop stressed that children brought about from IVF possess “inalienable human dignity,” noting that that very dignity is what leads to the Church’s opposition to the practice. 

IVF, he said, “subverts human dignity by reducing human persons — man, woman, and child alike — into objects of a technical process.”

IVF technology, meanwhile, is further morally fraught in its “ability to bring about new life for individuals who desire children outside the context of the bond of marriage” through the practice of surrogacy. 

Surrogacy has increasingly come under fire in recent years from pro-life activists and critics who argue that it disrespects children and is exploitative of women. Italy has banned surrogacy since 2004 and last year banned its citizens from seeking it abroad. Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has referred to the practice as “uterus renting.” In Europe, the practice is illegal in Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, and Spain as well. 

The Holy See, meanwhile, last year hosted a panel at the United Nations at which advocates stressed the need to regulate and eventually abolish surrogacy around the world.

Burbidge in his letter argued that it constitutes “a grave injustice to produce children who, from the start, are forcibly separated from their natural parents.”

Though the bishop warned against the possibility of a “federal IVF entitlement or mandate,” he also argued that the government could pursue “concrete ways to encourage earlier marriage and family formation” as well as support pregnancy and childbirth as a way to help families. 

The U.S. government, meanwhile, can take cues from Europe, he argued, where surrogacy is “recognized as exploitative and unjust and is almost universally impermissible.”

Burbidge further called on “all people of faith and goodwill to pray for those married couples experiencing infertility, for the efficacy of life-affirming fertility care, for an openness to God’s love and an ever-deeper experience of the virtues, and for the grace to accept whatever God’s will may be.”

The bishop released the letter on Jan. 22, the day the U.S. Catholic Church observes the Day of Prayer for the Legal Protection of Unborn Children. It was also the day in 1973 in which the Supreme Court ruled in the case Roe v. Wade, which legalized abortion throughout the United States. 

Roe was overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2022. In the nearly three years since, numerous U.S. states have enacted sweeping pro-life protections that had been illegal under Roe. However, many states have enacted broad pro-abortion statutes and passed pro-abortion ballot initiatives. 

null / Credit: Quisquilia/Shutterstock

CNA Staff, Jan 22, 2025 / 14:15 pm (CNA).

A Montana bill that could compel Catholic priests to break the seal of confession is being criticized by Catholics who say it could eliminate key religious liberty protections.

The proposed bill would “eliminate clergy exemption in mandatory reporting of child abuse and neglect.” It states that clergy and others in the mandatory reporting group such as medical practitioners and social workers “may not refuse to make a report as required ... on the grounds of a physician-patient or similar privilege.”

While clergy are often mandatory reporters outside of the confessional, long-standing legal precedent in the U.S. recognizes the religious freedom of confessors and penitents to be exempt from those rules.

Clergy members are already mandatory reporters of child abuse or neglect in Montana, though current Montana law upholds the priest-penitent privilege, requiring that “a member of the clergy or priest may not, without the consent of the person making the confession, be examined as to any confession made to the individual.”

The sacramental seal of confession in the Catholic Church strictly prohibits priests from sharing anything a penitent says during the sacrament of reconciliation. Any priest who “directly violates the sacramental seal” incurs excommunication, according to the Code of Canon Law (Canon 1386).  

Montana Rep. Lukas Schubert, R-Kalispell, an outspoken critic of the bill and a Catholic himself, criticized the legislation in an interview with CNA, saying it targeted Catholics. 

“I believe that this bill is an attack on the Catholic faith,” Schubert told CNA. “This Democrat bill would attempt to require Catholic priests to break the seal of confession.”

Matthew Brower, the executive director of the Montana Catholic Conference, told CNA that the conference has been following the legislation closely and awaiting a potential hearing.

“Montana’s bishops have a good relationship with our lawmakers and that allows them the ability to effectively engage in our legislative process,” Brower said.  

Rep. Mary Ann Dunwell, D-Helena, who is sponsoring the bill, told CNA that the measure is designed “to protect children from sexual and other abuse.”

Asked about claims that the bill goes against Church teaching, Dunwell said: “This is about civil and criminal laws to protect children from child sex abuse. It’s not about canon law. Otherwise, there’d be no separation of church and state.” 

Regarding the priest-penitent privilege, the U.S. Supreme Court “recognizes the human need to disclose to a spiritual counselor, in total and absolute confidence, what are believed to be flawed acts or thoughts and to receive priestly consolation and guidance in return,” according to the 1980 Trammel v. United States decision.

The priest-penitent privilege extends to more than just Catholics; several Protestant denominations including the Episcopal Church and the American Lutheran Church also hold requirements for secrecy for confession.

“All Catholics, Christians, and people with common sense must oppose this bill,” Schubert said. 

Similar bills have been proposed in recent years. In May 2023 Delaware legislators proposed a bill requiring priests to break the seal of confession in cases of reporting sexual abuse. A similar law was proposed in Vermont around the same time. Both bills failed to advance in their respective legislatures.

Brower said those at the Montana Catholic Conference “look forward to working with our legislators to help clear up any misunderstandings they might have regarding mandatory reporting by clergy and the sacrament of penance.”

“This legislation may be a well-intentioned but simply misguided proposal,” Brower noted.

United States Conference of Catholic Bishops headquarters in Washington, D.C. / Credit: Farragutful, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jan 22, 2025 / 10:20 am (CNA).

Policies related to immigration, gender ideology, abortion, and in vitro fertilization (IVF) are among the top religious liberty concerns heading into 2025, according to a report published by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB).

The USCCB Committee for Religious Liberty on Jan. 16 issued its Annual Report on the State of Religious Liberty, which highlights the legislative actions, potential executive actions, and U.S. Supreme Court cases the bishops are closely watching.

“We can become anxious that our unpopular positions on issues such as the dignity of all human life and the nature of marriage and the human person require us to compromise our integrity in order to secure political victories,” Bishop Kevin Rhoades of the Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend, Indiana, wrote in the foreward of the document.

“This jubilee year offers us a chance to reflect on the necessity of patience and long-suffering in our work to bear witness to the truth,” added Rhoades, who chairs the USCCB’s religious liberty committee.

Immigrant-focused and other Catholic organizations

Although the document states that immigration policy “is not itself a religious liberty issue,” it enters the realm of religious liberty “when religious charities and social services are singled out for special hostility, or when their bona fide religious motivations are impugned as pretextual for self-interest.”

The bishops specifically reference Annunciation House, an El Paso-based nonprofit that Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is seeking to shut down. The attorney general has accused the Catholic nonprofit of “alien harboring” — an allegation they are contesting in the state Supreme Court.

Other Catholic nonprofits, including Catholic Charities affiliates, have also faced combative actions from state governments for allegedly facilitating illegal immigration — a claim the USCCB has denied.

The bishops also expressed concerns about a House Judiciary Committee investigation into Climate Action 100+ members, which are investors seeking to reduce carbon emissions. The report notes that “several of the companies are Catholic” and following the bishops’ investment guidelines.

Additionally, the USCCB is closely following the Supreme Court case Catholic Charities Bureau v. Wisconsin Labor and Industry Review Commission, which will determine whether Wisconsin is violating the charity’s First Amendment rights by denying its status as a religious organization because the state does not consider service to the poor to be a typical religious activity.

Bills and policies pushing gender ideology

The bishops are also watching legislation, executive actions, and one Supreme Court case related to gender ideology, including what critics say are efforts to violate religious liberty by implementing rules to prohibit “gender identity” discrimination.

On the legislative side, the bishops are closely following the federal Equality Act, which would prohibit discrimination based on a person’s “gender identity.” The proposal — which lawmakers have introduced several times in recent years — would exclude some religious liberty protections.

The bishops warned the bill would force Catholic hospitals to “perform and promote life-altering gender ‘transitions.’” Some opponents have warned that the language would force hospitals to provide transgender surgeries to patients, including minors. 

Additionally, the USCCB is watching executive actions issued during former President Joe Biden’s administration, which reinterpret “sex” discrimination to include discrimination based on a person’s self-asserted gender identity. 

The Biden administration imposed that interpretation in education and health care regulations, which could have forced schools to blur sex-based separation of bathrooms, locker rooms, dormitories, and sports competitions and could have forced hospitals to perform transgender surgeries on patients, including minors.

President Donald Trump, however, reversed these rules in the first hours of his administration this week. The measures were also facing legal challenges.

The bishops will also follow an ongoing Supreme Court case that will determine whether Tennessee’s ban on minors receiving transgender drugs and surgeries constitutes a form of “sex” discrimination.

Abortion, IVF, and contraception

The bishops are also following abortion, IVF, and contraception mandates that could have an effect on religious liberty. 

On the legislative front, the bishops remain concerned about the Women’s Health Protection Act, which would legalize abortion nationwide and could override “conscience laws, state and federal, that protect the right of health care providers and professionals, employers, and insurers not to perform, assist in, refer for, cover, or pay for abortion,” according to the bishops.

The bishops are also following contraception and abortion-related mandates imposed by the Biden administration, including an Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) rule that reinterprets “sex” harassment to include discrimination based on a woman’s decision to have or not have an abortion. 

The rule requires that employers make accommodations for a woman who receives an abortion, which could include mandatory leave. These laws are being challenged in court.

Another concern for bishops is what they called an “intense bipartisan interest” in increasing the availability of IVF. They cited bills that introduce “an IVF mandate into Congress” by mandating insurance coverage, which the USCCB notes is “a mandate with which Catholic institutions cannot comply.”

The bishops expressed support for the Conscience Protection Act, which would bolster religious liberty and conscience protections in health care and health insurance regulatory rules.

Other religious liberty concerns

The bishops are also following other issues that could have religious liberty implications, which includes education, antisemitism, “debanking,” and cultural views about blasphemy. 

According to the bishops, “parental choice in education [is] one of the longest-running areas of concern for American Catholics.” The document references the ongoing Supreme Court case that will determine whether the school board in Montgomery County, Maryland, violated the First Amendment rights of parents by refusing to let them opt out of coursework that promotes gender ideology. 

The bishops are also following some bills, such as the Equal Campus Access Act, which would ensure that religious groups on college campuses receive the same treatment as secular ones.

The document also expresses concern about “widespread antisemitism,” which includes “reports of antisemitic incidents [that] emerged from the campus protests that began following the Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attack on Israel.”

Additionally, the bishops noted certain unique concerns such as “debanking,” which refers to banks closing accounts of people “on the basis of political and religious viewpoints.” The document also highlights the cultural acceptance of blasphemy and sacrilege, specifically noting the mockery of the Last Supper at the Paris Olympics.