St. James the Less Catholic Parish

An image of Servant of God Julia Greeley in a parish. / Credit: Screenshot/Colorado Capuchin Franciscans

CNA Staff, Jul 20, 2025 / 06:00 am (CNA).

A new, short documentary tells the story of Servant of God Julia Greeley, also known as Denver’s Angel of Charity, who was born into slavery near Hannibal, Missouri. 

“Julia Greeley: Servant of the Sacred Heart” features interviews with Father Blaine Burkey, OFM Cap, who wrote a book on Greeley’s life; Mary Leisring, president of the Julia Greeley Guild; Father Eric Zegeer, pastor of Sacred Heart Parish in Denver, Greeley’s parish; and Jean Torkelson, executive director of the Julia Greeley Home, a Denver nonprofit that serves women in need.

In the 13-minute documentary, interviewees discuss Greeley’s deep faith, her acts of charity, and her courageous response to the challenges presented throughout her life. 

When she was a child, while her master was beating her mother, his whip caught Greeley’s right eye and destroyed it. After she was freed in 1865, she spent her time serving poor families, mostly in Denver.

In 1880, Greeley entered the Catholic Church at Sacred Heart Parish in Denver. She attended daily Mass and had a deep devotion to the Blessed Sacrament, the Sacred Heart of Jesus, and the Blessed Virgin Mary. 

She joined the Secular Franciscan Order in 1901 and was known for her dedication to the people in her community, bringing them things they needed. Despite having arthritis, she walked countless miles to collect and distribute alms and to spread devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

Greely died on June 7, 1918, and her cause for canonization was opened by the Archdiocese of Denver in 2016.

Burkey is a retired priest in the Archdiocese of Denver. A scholar and expert on the life of Greeley, in an interview with CNA he described her as “a very zealous person.”

“Despite all the problems people gave her, she turned it around and didn’t spend time worrying about that,” he said.

The priest also highlighted that among Greeley’s many charitable deeds, “every time she had money leftover to take care of herself, she [instead] took care of the poor,” and “she didn’t spend her life trying to get even or [seek] vengeance or anything like that.”

He said he hopes the faithful are “encouraged by that message that you shouldn’t be concerned with vengeance but with mercy.”

“Julia Greeley: Servant of the Sacred Heart” can be viewed for free on YouTube. 

Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem Pierbattista Pizzaballa (L) and a members of a Christian visit the Saint Porphyrius Church in Gaza City on July 18, 2025. / Credit: OMAR AL-QATTAA/AFP via Getty Images

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jul 19, 2025 / 11:30 am (CNA).

Bishop William Shomali, the auxiliary bishop for the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem, said this week the community has been “very distressed” following the bombing of Holy Family Church in Gaza, with the prelate calling for the protection of nearby Chirstian villages. 

On July 17, the Israeli military bombed the only Catholic parish in Gaza. The strike killed three and injured nine, including the parish priest Father Gabriel Romanelli. 

The Israel Defense Forces subsequently apologized for the strike, stating that “fragments from a shell fired during operational activity in the area hit the church mistakenly.” Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa later seemed to imply that the strike was intentional, telling an Italian newspaper that “everybody [in Gaza] believes it wasn’t” a mistake. 

The day after the strike, Pizzaballa and Greek Orthodox Patriarch Theophilos III visited Gaza, providing “spiritual comfort, moral comfort, and also material comfort which is much needed.” 

In an interview with “EWTN News In Depth” on Friday, Shomali — who serves as general vicar and patriarchal vicar for Jerusalem and Palestine — said that the patriarch and his colleagues were able to bring one of the wounded back to Jerusalem where he is now “under treatment.”

As the Vatican is now urging a ceasefire, Shomali said it is “great in itself” that Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu spoke on the phone with Pope Leo XIV, following a written message from the Holy Father offering prayers. 

Shomali said that the Holy See has asked “frequently” for a ceasefire “during the time of Pope Francis and even now with Leo XIV.” He reflected on Pope Francis’ “very close” relationship with Father Gabriel Romanelli and the people in Gaza.

Pope Francis “knew every detail about the life of the Christian community in Gaza,” he said. It was “unique, to say the truth. Every pope has his own style. The style of our Holy Father is different, but we know that he asks a lot about Gaza, and the telegram he sent yesterday showed his closeness to Father Gabriel and to the community.”

During the interview, Shomali said the situation in the West Bank continues to be “critical” for a number of reasons. He highlighted the “daily confrontation between Palestinians and the settlers."

“We are suffering now because in two of our Christian villages, Tayibe and Abu, settlers enter almost every day to conquer more land and to enlarge the settlements,” Shomali said.

He explained that they have asked Israel Defense Forces “to prevent settlers from coming to the Christian village of Tayibe” and now are “waiting [for] the answer.”

“We hope they can do something,” Shomali said. “But…the settlers have weapons and I don't believe that the army would like to be in confrontation with the settlers who are more than 700 people in the West Bank.” 

“It is really difficult to convince them to change their mentality, which is very…ideological because they consider all the land in the West Bank theirs and it's a matter of time for them to take it without any sense of guilt,” the prelate said. 

“So really we are in front of an ideological conflict with two narratives where a negotiation for peace [is] very difficult,” he added. 

Miami Archbishop Thomas Wenski talks to "EWTN News in Depth" Anchor Catherine Hadro on Friday, July 18, 2025 / Credit: EWTN News

CNA Newsroom, Jul 19, 2025 / 10:45 am (CNA).

From Detroit to California to Florida, Catholic clergy are rallying to show support and solidarity for immigrants facing deportations.

While the Tennessee bishops and Bishop Alberto Rojas of San Bernardino recently granted dispensations to the Sunday Mass obligation for those who fear arrest, other Catholic clergy are attending marches to show solidarity and support for immigrants. 

In Detroit, one Catholic priest took a unique approach — delivering a letter to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). 

Father David Buersmeyer, ​the ​ombudsman of the Office of the Archbishop of Detroit, shared his growing concerns about immigration enforcement operations in a letter addressed to ICE’s Detroit field office and its director Kevin Raycraft.

“Over the last few months, not only in Detroit but throughout the nation, we have been seeing Immigration and Customs Enforcement personnel become more confrontational [and] less transparent, in ways that have created more fear and chaos among many of our immigrant communities,” Buersmeyer told CNA.

Buersmeyer is a chaplain for Strangers No Longer, a Michigan-based Catholic grassroots immigration advocacy group. Earlier this week, the group held a prayerful march to the local ICE office to deliver the letter, which was signed by Buersmeyer and the group’s board president, Judith Brooks.

Archbishop Edward Weisenburger of Detroit also joined the march, which was made up of several hundreds of people, including Catholic clergy, women religious, Protestant clergy, and Jewish leadership, according to Buersmeyer. 

The procession began with prayer at the Most Holy Trinity Church — which Buersmeyer calls “a longtime symbol” for immigrants and those in need — and ended at the nearby ICE office. 

Though the office refused to accept the letter at the door, Buersmeyer said the advocates passed the correspondence on to a congressman and a senator who agreed to deliver it to the director. 

The letter cited concerns about facemasks and lack of identification of ICE agents during immigration action, urging the director to enforce ID requirements and ban facemasks. Additionally, the letter urged ICE to not act without a federal warrant and to communicate with local police during enforcement. 

Finally, the letter criticized the separation of families when ICE arrests men, leaving women and children behind. 

The Department of Homeland Security said in a statement this week that “rather than separate families, ICE asks mothers if they want to be removed with their children or if the child should be placed with someone else safe the parent designates.”

Despite being turned away at the door by ICE staff, Buersmeyer hopes for “dialogue.” 

“Our hope is that enough people will come to see that the current procedures in place for treating immigrants leads too easily to inhumane, unjust, and unnecessary actions,” Buersmeyer said.

“That in turn can lead to a dialogue about national policies that can provide a more just and less knee-jerk framework for handling immigration cases.”

The subject of masking and identification is being discussed in Michigan and around the US. Earlier this week, the Michigan attorney general and other attorneys general sent a letter urging federal lawmakers to prohibit ICE officers from wearing masks. 

Several federal Democrat legislators recently proposed a bill that would require ICE agencies to better identify themselves. 

But in the same week, the Department of Homeland Security reported a spike in assaults and doxxing of ICE agents and expressed concern over “charged” rhetoric in the media.  

“Because our city has a major ICE field office we wanted to let him know that there are large numbers of community leaders who have the pulse of the people being affected by these newer enforcement procedures and that there are ways to both respect the work that ICE needs to do and to lessen that fear and work more positively,” Buersmeyer said. 

For Buersmeyer, the march was also about “solidarity” and living out Catholic social teaching. 

“We wanted to publicly witness to our support of such communities,” he said. 

Across the country in Los Angeles, a local Catholic priest had a similar goal — he hoped to bring spiritual guidance to his flock amid the unrest. 

Father Brendan Busse, the pastor at Dolores Mission Church, said that intensified activity from immigration and customs enforcement has deeply shaken the people he serves.

In the largely Hispanic neighborhood of Boyle Heights, people are filled with “anxiety” and have to make “hard decisions,” Busse explained. 

“We've received calls here at the parish — you know, ‘Father, I'm not sure our family feels safe coming to Mass,’” Busse told EWTN News President Montse Alvarado on “EWTN News in Depth” this week. “I think it's affected everybody."

Busse participated in a June 10 peaceful gathering in Los Angeles's Grand Park as well as a procession to a federal building, along with other faith leaders including Los Angeles Archbishop Jose Gomez, who has repeatedly called for action on immigration reform.

“We walked between protesters and National Guardsmen in a moment that was very tense,” Busse recalled. “And we brought into that place a spirit of peace.”

The Diocese of San Bernardino faces similar challenges, leading to the archbishop’s decision to dispense Mass attendance for those affected by ICE activity. 

John Andrews, a spokesman for the San Bernardino diocese, said that ICE has come onto parish property twice that he is aware of, including the arrest of a parishioner of Our Lady of Lourdes in Montclair. 

“A man who was doing landscaping work on the parish property was taken into custody there, arrested, and was later taken to an immigration facility in Texas,” Andrews told “EWTN News In-Depth.”

In Florida, meanwhile, concerns have proliferated over the state’s so-called “Alligator Alcatraz,” a detention facility for illegal immigrants in the Everglades. State leaders have touted the facility’s remote location as well as its being surrounded by dangerous wildlife. 

Venice, Florida, Bishop Frank Dewane said earlier this month that it was “unbecoming of public officials and corrosive of the common good” to speak of the threat of alligators and other dangerous animals in the context of the immigrants housed there. 

Miami Archbishop Thomas Wenski, meanwhile, told “EWTN News in Depth” this week that his “greatest concern is the health and care of the people that are being detained there.”

“It's in a very isolated place far away from medical facilities. It's in a swamp that is very hot on a tarmac, which makes it even hotter,” the bishop said. 

The archbishop said that advocates are calling for “a minimum of standards,” and that “one of those standards should be access to pastoral care.” 

He described the difficulty of arranging Masses and spiritual care at the detention center, claiming that the Florida state government and the federal government are “arguing among themselves who is accountable for this place.”

The prelate said people should be aware of the difference between illegal immigration and “violent crime or felonies.”

“Most of the the immense majority of these people,” he said, “are here and working in honest jobs and trying to make a living for themselves and their families, trying to just have a future of hope for themselves and their families.”

Joseph Hazboun, the regional director at the Pontifical Mission in the Jerusalem field office, speaks to Tara Mergener on "EWTN News Nightly," Friday, July 18, 2025 / Credit: EWTN News

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jul 19, 2025 / 09:00 am (CNA).

In the wake of an Israeli missile strike on Gaza’s only Catholic church this week that left three dead, the regional director of the Jerusalem field office for the Pontifical Mission, Joseph Hazboun, spoke with “EWTN News Nightly” on July 18 about the situation facing the people there. 

Citing Pope Leo XIV’s phone call Friday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Hazboun told “EWTN News Nightly” Anchor Tara Mergener that he hopes “more pressure will be put to end this tragic and meaningless war that has taken so many lives.” 

Pope Leo in a telegram as well as on social media also issued a call for an immediate ceasefire after the deadly attack.

The director for the Pontifical Mission, a Vatican-sponsored charity, noted that the attack on Holy Family Church in Gaza has sparked “a lot of solidarity internationally,” which he called “very good.”

Israel said the church was “mistakenly” hit and that it “regrets” the damage caused to the city’s only Catholic parish. Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said in a statement on X that the parish had been hit by “fragments from a shell.” The church has been sheltering more than 600 people since the war broke out, including Catholics, Orthodox Christians, and Muslims. 

“The cause of the incident is under review,” the statement read. “The IDF directs its strikes solely at military targets and makes every feasible effort to mitigate harm to civilians and religious structures, and regrets any unintentional damage caused to them.”

The Pontifical Mission has been operating in Gaza for “decades,” according to Hazboun. In recent years, the charity has provided critical aid such as water, food, and psychosocial support for mothers and children through various local partners. 

Most recently, the organization was able to purchase fresh vegetables from a local market in Gaza — which Hazboun said due to widespread food scarcity was “surprising to us” — and distribute them in cooperation with the Near East Council of Churches to over 500 families. The Pontifical Mission was also able to buy and distribute five and a half tons of flour, which it also gave to over 500 families. Hazboun noted “the tragic news of people going to the distribution centers and getting killed just for some kilos of flour.”

According to Hazboun, the Christian community in Gaza was very active prior to the war that started in the wake of the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks. “There were once around 17 centers providing services,” he said, including several hospitals, schools, cultural centers, and various scouting troops.

“It was a very vibrant community,” he said. “Unfortunately, during the war many of the institutions were targeted and now they are inoperational.”

“The YMCA is dysfunctional,” he continued. “The Arab Orthodox Cultural center is destroyed — and so unfortunately we are not sure how things will look after the war. It all depends on how many will remain in Gaza.”

Nevertheless, Hazboun said he is “confident” that many Christians will remain in Gaza.

He stressed that the Pontifical Mission’s message to Gazans, especially to youths, has been that “as long as you see Gaza as a homeland, we will support you and we will provide everything that we can so that you can have a dignified life and see a future for yourself in Gaza.”

“If you decide that you no longer have a future in Gaza,” he said, “that’s your decision; we respect it and we ask for God’s blessing wherever you decide to go.”

For more than 40 years, the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception has welcomed visitors to its annual summer organ recital series. / Credit: Timothy Dias/Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jul 19, 2025 / 08:00 am (CNA).

For more than 40 years, the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C., has welcomed visitors to its annual summer organ recital series, providing a unique opportunity to experience the grandeur of sacred music outside the liturgical setting.

“[The series is] a promotion of an extraordinary and almost mystical form of art that has existed for centuries,” Peter Latona, director of music at the basilica, told CNA.

Held on Sunday evenings throughout July and August, the series features performances on the basilica’s renowned chancel and gallery organs — together comprising more than 9,600 pipes. 

Each recital begins at 6 p.m. preceded by a half-hour carillon performance from the basilica’s 56-bell Knights’ Tower Carillon, performed by Jeremy Ng, a rising senior at Yale University and a certified carillonneur member of the Guild of Carillonneurs in North America.

According to basilica officials, the organ series is intended to offer a musical experience as profound as the visual beauty of the church’s art and architecture.

“It provides visitors an opportunity to hear the marvelous instruments and enjoy music outside of the context of Mass in the same way they would walk through the basilica to soak in the beautiful mosaics and other works of art,” Benjamin LaPrairie, associate director of music at the basilica, told CNA.

While most concert attendees sit in the pews facing the “Christ in Majesty” mosaic, a few families visit the chapels, briefly praying and soaking up the beauty of the sacred space.

“Our mission as musicians of the basilica to ‘transform hearts and minds through the power and beauty of music in the Roman Catholic liturgy’ applies here as well,” Adam Chlebek, assistant director of music at the basilica, told CNA.

Each summer, musicians are selected from a global pool of applicants with the music department curating a lineup that features both emerging artists and internationally acclaimed performers. This year’s series opened with Chlebek himself, a recent graduate of the Eastman School of Music.

“Performing on this instrument, I feel a connection to the musical heritage that has been cultivated in the basilica since the organ’s installation and dedication in 1965,” Chlebek said. “I am honored to continue this heritage.”

Attendance is open to all, with a freewill offering accepted to support the program. The basilica encourages the public to take advantage of this opportunity to hear “one of the finest organs in Washington, D.C., in one of the most beautiful and inspiring sacred spaces in North America.”

Reflecting on the series — which draws about 100 attendees each week — Chlebek expressed his hopes for its impact: “My hope is that the audience comes away with their hearts and minds transformed.”

Latona noted that the audience demographic has evolved over time, now including more young people and people from diverse backgrounds.

“Our objective is to grow the audience so that more people get to share in this experience,” he  said.

The 2025 Summer Organ Recital Series runs through its final performance on Aug. 31. Details on upcoming performers are available on the basilica’s official website.

Archbishop Timothy Broglio, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. / Credit: USCCB video

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jul 18, 2025 / 16:00 pm (CNA).

Archbishop Timothy P. Broglio, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, has called for peace and an “immediate ceasefire” following the bombing of the only Catholic church in Gaza.

“With the Holy Father, the Catholic bishops of the United States are deeply saddened to learn about the deaths and injuries at Holy Family Church in Gaza caused by a military strike,” Broglio wrote in a Thursday statement. 

The July 17 Israeli strike killed three people and injured nine others, including the parish priest, Father Gabriel Romanelli.

“Our first concern, naturally, goes out to Father Gabriel Romanelli and all his parishioners, most especially to the families of those killed,” Broglio said. “Our prayers are for them during these tragic times.”

The statement follows a message from Pope Leo XIV on the social media platform X that said: “I commend the souls of the deceased to the loving mercy of Almighty God and pray for their families and the injured. I renew my call for an immediate ceasefire. Only dialogue and reconciliation can ensure enduring peace!”

In agreement, Broglio wrote: “With the Holy Father, we also continue to pray and advocate for dialogue and an immediate ceasefire. Yesterday was the memorial of Our Lady of Mount Carmel; through her intercession, may there be peace in Gaza.”

On Friday, CNA reported that Pope Leo received a phone call from Benjamin Netanyahu, the prime minister of Israel, following yesterday’s Israel Defense Forces attack on Holy Family Church in Gaza.

During the conversation, the Holy Father renewed his call for the urgent reactivation of the negotiation process in order to establish a ceasefire and end the war. He expressed his deep concern for the humanitarian situation in Gaza as well as the urgent need to protect places of worship “and the faithful and all people living in both Palestine and Israel.”

Human embryos. / Credit: Andrii Vodolazhskyi/CNA

CNA Staff, Jul 18, 2025 / 15:00 pm (CNA).

Here is a roundup of recent pro-life and abortion-related news.

California couple that had 21 kids via surrogate mothers charged with neglect, endangerment

A California couple that had 21 children via surrogacy has been charged with felony child endangerment and neglect.

Authorities also alleged that their nannies were physically abusing the children. 

Guojun Xuan, 65, and Silvia Zhang, 38, own a mansion in Arcadia and a business called Mark Surrogacy. 

Unbeknownst to the surrogate mothers the couple was working with, the embryos the mothers were carrying belonged to the company owners — and each embryo was one of many. 

Seventeen of the children are toddlers or infants, and the oldest is 13. All 21 children have since been taken in by the state Department of Children and Family Services.

The investigation took place after a 2-month-old child was brought into a hospital with a traumatic brain injury.

Cops alleged that the family nanny, 56-year-old Chunmei Li, had injured the baby and committed other abuses. Surveillance footage allegedly shows Li shaking and hitting the infant. Footage also showed other nannies abusing the children, according to the authorities. 

Federal court upholds West Virginia ban on abortion drugs

The 4th Circuit Court has upheld West Virginia’s ban on chemical abortion, ruling that the law cannot be overridden by Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulations.

Mifepristone manufacturer GenBioPro asked the court to strike down West Virginia’s protections for unborn children against chemical abortion, arguing that the FDA has the final say in whether drugs are legal.

In a 45-page opinion by Judge J. Harvey Wilkinson III, the court found that in approving the drug, the FDA “did not create a right to utilize any particular high-risk drug” simultaneously. Rather, the FDA regulations constitute the “minimum safety rules for administering drugs like mifepristone where they may be legally prescribed.”

March for Life President Jennie Bradley Lichter called the decision “huge,” noting that it meant that a state could ban a federally approved drug.

It was the first time a federal appeals court had said states can restrict mifepristone use.

West Virginia Gov. Patrick Morrisey said the decision was a “big win.”

“West Virginia can continue to enforce our pro-life laws and lead the nation in our efforts to protect life,” Morrisey stated. “We will always be a pro-life state!” 

8 babies born via IVF from DNA of 3 people

Eight healthy babies were born via an in vitro fertilization procedure where doctors created embryos with DNA from three people.

The United Kingdom made the procedure legal in 2015 and granted the first license in 2017 to a fertility clinic at Newcastle University.

The doctors used the third-party DNA to prevent children from inheriting incurable genetic disorders. The mothers were at risk for passing on life-threatening diseases to their babies, but the babies have no signs of the mitochondrial diseases they were at risk of inheriting. Four boys and four girls — including one set of identical twins — were born to the seven women.

Fort Worth, Texas, skyline. / Credit: The Safety Kingpin, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Houston, Texas, Jul 18, 2025 / 14:30 pm (CNA).

Catholic Charities Fort Worth (CCFW) announced July 17 that it will continue leading the Texas Office for Refugees until September 2026, reversing an earlier decision to step down later this year due to challenges imposed by the Trump administration’s funding cuts to refugee programs. 

The move follows urgent pleas from approximately 60 refugee service providers across Texas, who warned that CCFW’s withdrawal would jeopardize $200 million in critical federal funding for over 118,000 refugees.

In early June, CCFW announced plans to relinquish its role in October as the state’s replacement designee for the Texas Office for Refugees, a role the nonprofit took on in 2021 after Texas Gov. Greg Abbott withdrew the state from the federal refugee resettlement program in 2016.

This prompted a swift response from providers, who sent letters to the group warning that its abrupt exit would disrupt critical refugee services. 

“To do this in this climate is not moral in a lot of ways,” said Kimberly Haynes, Texas director of Church World Service, who urged CCFW to stay for another year to ensure a stable transition.

Haynes told the Houston Chronicle in June that CCFW’s departure could force her organization to lay off employees and close programs, including the Refugee Cash Assistance, Medical Assistance, Immigration Legal Services, and Social Adjustment programs, affecting 80% of its services in Dallas and Houston.

CCFW President and CEO Michael Iglio said in a statement shared with CNA the reversal came after “deeper reflection” and “thoughtful feedback” from providers. 

“We recognized that an early withdrawal could risk serious disruptions in services,” Iglio stated, adding that stepping down prematurely was a decision the agency “could not in good conscience allow.” 

By continuing through September 2026, when its contract ends, CCFW aims to safeguard services and facilitate a responsible transition.

CCFW sued the Trump administration and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in March, alleging an unlawful freeze of $36 million in funding. Although payments resumed after a program integrity review, the incident highlighted the precarious funding environment for refugee programs.

The decision comes amid broader challenges for refugee services under the second Trump administration, which froze the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program in January, disrupting $100 million in aid for Houston-area refugees alone.

As a result, the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston in February laid off 120 employees who mostly worked in refugee assistance.

Catholic social teaching on immigration, which is built on Jesus’ call to welcome the stranger (cf. Matthew 25:35), underpins CCFW’s commitment to refugees. The agency’s decision to stay aligns with the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ advocacy for humane immigration policies.

null / Credit: Brian A Jackson/Shutterstock

CNA Staff, Jul 18, 2025 / 12:30 pm (CNA).

A federal court on July 18 blocked a controversial Washington state reporting law that would require priests to violate the seal of confession, siding with the state’s Catholic bishops who brought suit against the measure earlier this year.

The law, passed by the state Legislature earlier this year and signed by Gov. Robert Ferguson, added clergy to the list of mandatory abuse reporters in the state. But it didn’t include an exemption for information learned in the confessional, explicitly leaving priests out of a “privileged communication” exception afforded to other professionals.

In the ruling, District Judge David Estudillo said there was “no question” that the law burdened the free exercise of religion.

“In situations where [priests] hear confessions related to child abuse or neglect, [the rule] places them in the position of either complying with the requirements of their faith or violating the law,” the judge wrote.

Estudillo noted that the measure as passed “modifies existing law solely to make members of the clergy mandatory reporters with respect to child abuse or neglect.” 

As written, the law is “neither neutral nor generally applicable” insofar as it “treats religious activity less favorably than comparable secular activity,” he said.

The state could have made clergy mandatory reporters while allowing a narrow exception for confession, Estudillo said, as more than two dozen other states already have. 

The order bars the Washington state government from enforcing the law.

The ruling comes after the bishops sued Ferguson, state Attorney General Nicholas Brown, and more than three dozen prosecutors over the controversial reporting law. 

On July 15 those prosecutors filed a motion in the court promising not to appeal the injunction against the law or any final judgment of the court in exchange for largely being excused from the ongoing legal proceedings. Ferguson and Brown are still subject to the suit.

The lawsuit argued that the law violated the free exercise of religion protected by the First Amendment by infringing on the sacred seal of confession as well as both the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment and the state constitution.

The Washington bishops’ effort drew support from a broad variety of advocates, including the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, the U.S. Department of Justice, a coalition of Orthodox churches, and Bishop Robert Barron of Winona-Rochester, Minnesota.

Barron earlier this month argued to the court that a penitent who is “aware the priest might (let alone must) share with others what was given in the most sacred confidence” of confession
“would be reluctant indeed to ever approach” the sacrament. 

The Department of Justice, meanwhile, said the law “appears to single out clergy as not entitled to assert applicable privileges, as compared to other reporting professionals,” including lawyers, doctors, and social service workers. 

The law even drew international rebuke when the Confraternity of Catholic Clergy — which represents over 500 Roman Catholic priests and deacons from the U.S., Australia, and the United Kingdom — last month issued a statement criticizing the passage of laws “which attempt to compel ordained priests to disclose the identity and content of what a penitent has confessed.”

The group criticized governments for specifically targeting priests while at the same time “respect[ing] and uphold[ing] the institutions of attorney/client and doctor/patient privilege.”

Though the Washington bishops had mounted an aggressive challenge to the state law, Church leaders there assured the faithful that the seal of confession would remain inviolate regardless of any legal stipulations one way or the other. 

“[S]hepherds, bishops, and priests” are “committed to keeping the seal of confession — even to the point of going to jail,” Spokane Bishop Thomas Daly said in May. 

Church canon law dictates that a priest who directly violates the seal of confession is automatically excommunicated. Barron earlier this month told the court that “few religious practices are more misunderstood than the sacred seal of confession in the Catholic Church.”

Catholics believe that penitents who seek the sacrament of confession are “speaking to and hearing from the Lord himself” via the priest, the prelate wrote. 

As a result, “absolutely nothing ought to stand in the way of a sinner who seeks this font of grace,” Barron said.

In a scene marked by deep sorrow and righteous anger, churches across Syria held funeral services for the victims of the suicide bombing that targeted St. Elias Church in the Syrian capital, Damascus. The attack claimed the lives of 25 people and left dozens injured. / Credit: Mohammad Al-Rifai/ACI MENA

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jul 18, 2025 / 06:00 am (CNA).

Here is a roundup of Catholic world news from the past week that you might have missed. 

Violence against Christians escalates in Syria

Christian communities in Syria continue to experience escalating violence, with one church severely damaged and another narrowly escaping what would have been a fatal car bombing attack, according to CNA’s Arabic-language news partner ACI MENA.

Vandals desecrated the altar at Mar Michael (Saint Michael) Church in the southern Syrian province of Sweida, smashed Christian symbols, and set fire to its ceiling and walls, charring the upper icons and the central cross above the altar. 

In a parallel development, security forces thwarted an attempt to bomb the Maronite Church of Mar Elias (Saint Elias) in eastern rural Tartus. Three individuals who planned to detonate a car bomb loaded with roughly 44 pounds of explosives have been arrested. The attacks come amid escalating armed clashes in southern Syria between Druze and Bedouin militias. 

Sako appeals to Iraqi prime minister to protect Christian heritage in Najaf

Chaldean Patriarch Cardinal Louis Raphaël Sako has issued an urgent appeal to Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia’ al-Sudani, calling on him to avert the threat of encroachment on sacred Christian historical sites in Najaf province dating back to the sixth century, ACI MENA reports. 

In a July 15 statement, Sako cited “trusted sources in Najav” who warned of “attempts to allocate historic Christian cemeteries for investment” despite their status as archeological sites. The Chaldean patriarch further noted that “oil will one day run out,” and the historic sites could one day become a destination for religious tourism, bringing in substantial revenues.

Among them are the al-Manathira Cemetery, burial site of great Patriarchs of the Church of the East, and Umm Khishm Cemetery, which dates back to the time of the Kingdom of al-Hira.

Chinese bishop encourages faithful to abandon burdensome dowry custom 

In a wedding Mass homily on July 13, Archbishop Meng Ningyou of Taiyuan invited the faithful to abandon the still-widespread custom of wedding dowries, a practice which has caused couples in rural areas to break up due to the financial burden it places on families, according to a report from Fides. 

Bishop Meng reportedly described the sacrament of marriage as “a union of free, mutual self-giving blessed by God” and “called on spouses to accept one another, support each other in the Christian upbringing of their children, and care for one another, following the example of the Good Samaritan.” 

Filipino cardinal slams government for promoting online gambling addictions 

The president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines, Cardinal Pablo Virgilio David of Kalookan, delivered a sharp criticism of the government in a homily on July 13 for promoting online gambling addictions, according to a local Catholic news report. 

“We fail to see the real culprit: a government that grants licenses and expands online gambling platforms just to earn revenue for public spending — spending that often becomes a tool for political power,” he declared, adding: “The Word opens our eyes to see the hidden victims on these digital highways. … It urges us to take concrete steps to help these vulnerable ones whom society often ignores.”

Vietnamese bishop celebrates the abolition of the death penalty for eight crimes 

Bishop Joseph Nguyen Dec Cuong of Thanh Hóa, president of the Justice and Peace Commission of the Episcopal Conference of Vietnam, is celebrating the country’s decision to end the death penalty for crimes against the state, bribery, and drugs. 

“The decision marks an encouraging step forward in legal awareness, in line with the spirit of international treaties,” the bishop said, adding that the occasion marked a significant step towards “a modern constitutional state, in which life is protected, human dignity is respected, and opportunities for rehabilitation are open.” 

Religious freedom group calls on EU to create position to combat Christian hate crimes 

The Observatory for Religious Freedom in Spain has called on the president of the European Commission to create a Special Coordinator position to combat anti-Christian hate crimes, according to a Christian Daily report. 

“It is imperative that the European Commission act with the same commitment it shows in the fight against other forms of religious hatred,” OLRC President María García said in a press statement. Equivalent positions exist to combat anti-semitism and Islamophobia in the EU already.

Charity pledges continued support for seminarians in Nigeria as vocations rise

The pontifical charity Aid to the Church in Need International (ACN) has expressed its commitment to continue supporting the formation of priests in Nigeria, where the foundation has observed exponential growth in vocations, ACI Africa reports. 

ACN said on Monday it would move forward in its support for one more year for the 76 members of the Sons of Mary, Mother of Mercy, who are currently studying to be priests.

“Nigeria is a dangerous country for priests,” the organization stated. “In the last 10 years, more than 150 have been kidnapped and more than a dozen murdered. However, the number of vocations has not decreased, but has even increased, and many young men aspire to become diocesan or religious priests.”