St. James the Less Catholic Parish

Cardinal John O’Connor attends the St. Patrick’s Day parade in New York City as grand marshal on March 17, 1995. / Credit: JON LEVY/AFP via Getty Images

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, May 3, 2025 / 07:00 am (CNA).

In 1975, Cardinal John O’Connor, the late former archbishop of New York, visited the Dachau concentration camp. His life-changing experience there eventually led him to found the Sisters of Life, a community of women dedicated to living out his mission: protecting and enhancing human life.

Today, 25 years after his death, more than a 100 of those sisters will gather with O’Connor’s relatives, friends, and those who have benefited from his ministry to celebrate his legacy.

Sister Maris Stella, vicar general of the Sisters of Life, reflected on that legacy and told CNA that throughout his life O’Connor “had great respect for the dignity of the human person” and always had the dream to work with people in need, specifically children with disabilities and other vulnerable groups.

Finding a ‘spiritual response’ to a ‘culture of death’

O’Connor entered the priesthood when he was 25 years old in his home state of Pennsylvania. He began teaching high school students while continuing his own education receiving degrees in ethics and psychology and later a doctorate in political science.

In his early 30s, O’Connor joined the United States Navy as a chaplain and wrote curriculum and leadership formation programs for Navy personnel, forming them in virtue and teaching them to have respect for the human person. His 27 years in the Navy greatly shifted his path. 

In the mid-1970s, he made a visit to Dachau in Germany, where thousands were killed during World War II. Sister Maris Stella told CNA that while he was there, he had a profound experience that changed his life.

“He went to the crematorium and placed his hands in the oven … and was pierced to the heart and cried out: ‘My God, how could human beings do this to other human beings?’”

“You could say that in placing his hand in the oven, he kind of placed his hand on the deepest wound in our culture, which he saw was this contempt for human life, this disregard for the dignity of the human person,” Sister Maris Stella said.

In that moment, O’Connor vowed to do everything in his power to protect human life.

In 1984 he was appointed the archbishop of New York, and just a year later he was made a cardinal by Pope John Paul II. O’Connor became very active in the pro-life movement by preaching and advocating alongside other leaders. 

But despite his work, Sister Maris Stella said, “he wondered why there wasn’t greater progress being made on behalf of human life.” He began to pray and reflect on the Scriptures and the Gospel of Mark.

“There’s a story where Jesus sends out the apostles and they can do all these things in his name. But,” Sister Maris Stella said, “there was one demon they couldn’t cast out, and Our Lord says to them, ‘Some demons are only cast out by prayer and fasting.’”

“When Cardinal read that, those words … jumped off the page to him, and he understood that this contempt for human life was a demon in our culture.”

“It was a spiritual reality that demanded a spiritual response,” Sister Maris Stella said. It inspired  O’Connor to found the Sisters of Life to be the “response to the culture of death [and] to pray and fast on behalf of human life.”

In order to find women to join, O’Connor wrote an article for his weekly column in the Catholic New York newspaper highlighting his vision with the headline: “Help Wanted: Sisters of Life.”

Soon after, eight women reached out to be a part of it.

The Sisters of Life

Today, three decades since the Sisters of Life began in New York, there are almost 140 women in the community serving across the globe. 

The sisters “believe that every person is sacred, unique, and unrepeatable, and infinitely loved by God. Not for anything they can do, produce, or achieve, but simply because they exist and are created in God’s image,” Sister Maris Stella said.

The sisters work to ensure human dignity is protected and enhanced by serving pregnant women in crisis, hosting retreats, and spreading the message of the dignity of life.

At one of their seven convents in the New York area, the Sacred Heart of Jesus Convent in Midtown Manhattan, the sisters also run the Holy Respite, inviting pregnant women to live with them throughout their pregnancies. It has been open for nearly 27 years and hundreds of women and children have stayed there as their guests. 

The sisters also hold their Entering Canaan retreats to serve women who are suffering after the experience of abortion so the women “can receive God’s healing and mercy and come back to the life of the Church.”

Each year, the sisters host a number of weekendlong women’s retreats and a men’s retreat to take time for silent prayer, Eucharistic adoration, Mass, confession, and hearing conferences by the sisters. Occasionally, they will hold similar retreats for people with disabilities, continuing O’Connor’s love for and outreach to them.

Sister Maris Stella told CNA that for O’Connor, “the vulnerability of people with disabilities and the vulnerability of the unborn, to him, showed more than anyone the sacredness of human life.”

“The unborn and those who are weak and suffering in a way carry within them the glory of God in a more magnificent way, because their dignity doesn’t arise from what they can do, because in many cases their capacities are limited, but their dignity arises from the fact that they are held into existence by God’s love.”

Celebrating ‘a legacy of life and love’

In celebration of O’Connor’s legacy 25 years after his death, on May 3 the Sisters of Life is hosting a block party on John Cardinal O’Connor Way, a street in New York named after the pro-life champion. O’Connor’s family members, families the sisters have helped over the years, and supporters of the organization will gather with the sisters for food, music, and games.

Following the festivities, the attendees will go to St. Patrick’s Cathedral for a vigil memorial Mass to honor O’Connor and his “legacy of love and life” and his “entrance into eternal life.”

Confessional. / AS photo studio/Shutterstock

CNA Newsroom, May 3, 2025 / 06:30 am (CNA).

Washington Gov. Bob Ferguson on Friday signed a controversial state law that requires priests to report child abuse to authorities even if they learn of it during the sacrament of confession.

The measure, introduced in the state legislature earlier this year, adds clergy to the list of mandatory abuse reporters in the state, but doesn't include an exemption for information learned in the confessional.

A 2023 version of the proposal had offered an exemption for abuse allegations learned “solely as a result of a confession.” The latest bill does not contain such a carve-out, and in fact explicitly notes that clergy do not qualify for a "privileged communication" exemption.

Ferguson told reporters that as a Catholic he was "very familiar" with the sacrament of confession. "[I] felt this was important legislation," he said on Friday.

Spokane Bishop Thomas Daly, meanwhile, said in a Friday statement that clergy there would not break the seal of confession even if required to by law.

"[S]hepherds, bishop and priests" are "committed to keeping the seal of confession – even to the point of going to jail," the bishop said.

"The Sacrament of Penance is sacred and will remain that way in the Diocese of Spokane," he added.

The bishop noted that the Spokane diocese maintains "an entire department at the Chancery" dedicated to protecting children, and that it employs a zero-tolerance policy regarding child sexual abuse.

"As this matter continues to unfold, I intend on keeping you informed and updated," the bishop wrote. "An important element to the greatness of America is our Constitutional commitment to religious freedom."

A bill proposed in Montana earlier this year similarly proposed to “eliminate clergy exemption in mandatory reporting of child abuse and neglect.” 

Clergy “may not refuse to make a report as required ... on the grounds of a physician-patient or similar privilege,” the Montana bill said. That measure stalled at committee in January. 

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.

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Washington, D.C. Newsroom, May 2, 2025 / 18:23 pm (CNA).

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) issued a report Thursday that outlines concerns about the use of life-altering drugs and surgeries on minors who struggle with gender dysphoria.

The HHS report notes that this model, sometimes called “gender-affirming care,” includes irreversible medical interventions on children who do not have any physical health conditions. The treatments are designed to feminize boys and masculinize girls, and the surgeries make the child’s body appear more similar to that of the opposite sex.

“Systematic reviews of the evidence have revealed deep uncertainty about the purported benefits of these interventions,” the foreword of the executive summary of the 400-page report notes.

President Donald Trump signed an executive order during his second week in office that directed HHS, led by Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., to produce a report on this subject. The order also directed all hospitals that receive federal funding to halt the practice of giving children drugs or performing surgeries on them to treat gender dysphoria.

According to the report, “these interventions carry risk of significant harms,” which can include infertility, sexual dysfunction, underdeveloped bone mass, cardiovascular disease, metabolic disorders, psychiatric disorders, and adverse cognitive impacts, among other complications.

The report notes that the purported benefit of these interventions is “to improve mental health outcomes” for children who identify themselves as transgender and desire certain physical changes. However, according to the report, systematic reviews of patients “have not found credible evidence that they lead to meaningful improvement in mental health.”

“When medical interventions pose unnecessary, disproportionate risks of harm, health care providers should refuse to offer them even when they are preferred, requested, or demanded by patients,” the report’s authors write.

The report finds “no evidence that pediatric medical transition reduces the incidence of suicide, which remains, fortunately, very low.” For this reason, the authors criticize organizations that frame these interventions as “medically necessary” or “lifesaving,” arguing that such characterizations are not supported by the evidence. 

Although the authors note that “the principle of autonomy” is important in medicine, they add that there is not a “right to receive interventions that are not beneficial” and that autonomy “does not negate clinicians’ professional and ethical obligation to protect and promote their patients’ health.” 

The report also discusses “regret,” particularly coming from so-called “detransitioners” who seek to reverse body-altering medical interventions they have received. It states that the “regret” rate is unknown and that more evidence is needed, but adds: “That some patients report profound regret after undergoing invasive, life-changing medical interventions is clearly of importance.”

There is little evidence concerning the benefits of psychotherapeutic interventions in the treatment of children with gender dysphoria, according to the report. However, there is evidence supporting psychotherapeutic interventions for children with other mental health problems, and there is no evidence psychotherapeutic interventions for gender dysphoria causes harm.

Mary Rice Hasson, the director of the Person and Identity Project at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, told CNA that the report is “extremely well done” and provides an “in-depth and unbiased analysis” of the current medical literature related to treating children who have gender dysphoria.

Hasson said this guidance can serve as a resource for parents, physicians, and policymakers who are “seeking to help ‘gender-dysphoric’ minors.”

“Both evidence and ethics point to the better solution for treating identity-distressed kids: psychotherapy and time,” she said. “Let kids be kids, and let them grow up undamaged by drastic, disabling interventions.”

Jill Simons, a pediatrician and executive director of the American College of Pediatricians, told CNA that the Trump administration “should be applauded” for its work so far on this subject but added that “more has to be done” and called on pediatricians to “stand up to the organizations … that are still promoting … these harmful [procedures].”

Simons also noted that the report found no evidence that these medical interventions reduce the risk of suicide and warned that some doctors make that claim “to scare parents.” 

“Parents need to know that that is just simply not true,” she said.

The Human Rights Campaign (HRC), a pro-LGBT group, criticized the HHS report.

“Trans people are who we are,” HRC Chief of Staff Jay Brown said in a statement. “We’re born this way. And we deserve to live our best lives and have a fair shot and equal opportunity at living a good life.”

Trump’s executive order to halt gender-altering drugs and surgeries for children has been subject to numerous lawsuits.

null / Credit: Bill Chizek/Shutterstock

CNA Staff, May 2, 2025 / 17:44 pm (CNA).

The National Catholic Committee on Scouting (NCCS) announced today a new memorandum of understanding with Scouting America, formerly known as the Boy Scouts of America, which the organizations say solidifies their “long-standing commitment to the holistic development and spiritual growth of young people.”

“This agreement reaffirms [our] shared values and outlines collaborative efforts to provide enriching and character-building opportunities for Catholic youth through Scouting,” the organizations said in a May 1 joint announcement. The text of the memorandum was not immediately made available. 

The NCCS, founded in the early 20th century, is an advisory committee that utilizes all the programs and activities of the Boy Scouts of America but works with the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops to ensure alignment of Catholic Scouting programs with Catholic teaching, the organization says. The organization serves some 98,000 Catholic Scouts, according to its website.

Catholic organizations were early supporters of the Boy Scouts after its founding in 1910, with the earliest known Catholic-chartered troops established in St. Paul, Minnesota, that year. Today there are more than 3,270 Catholic-sponsored Scouting units across the nation, the groups say. 

The two organizations’ renewed partnership signifies “a continued dedication to working together to empower young people with strong moral compasses, leadership skills, and a commitment to service,” the announcement continues. 

“Today’s signing of the [memorandum] between Scouting America and the National Catholic Committee on Scouting reaffirms a long-standing partnership built on shared values of faith, service, and leadership,” said Bill Guglielmi, chair-elect of the National Catholic Committee on Scouting. 

“Together, we celebrate over 100 years of collaboration in shaping young people of character guided by the values of the Scout Oath and Law, especially the principles of duty to God and reverence. Our actions today reaffirm our mutual commitment to continuing this important mission for generations to come.”

The May 1 announcement comes after a turbulent dozen or so years for the Boy Scouts, which rely heavily on religious organizations to run their local troops. 

The organization lifted a ban on members who identify as gay in 2013 and faced major backlash in 2015 over its decision to allow openly gay men to serve as troop leaders. The organization later opened its ranks to girls as well as to biological girls who identify as boys. 

After seeing its membership plummet due to the pandemic, the Boy Scouts declared bankruptcy in 2020 amid a flood of some 82,000 sexual abuse claims, later agreeing to a $2.4 billion settlement plan for victims in 2024.

null / Credit: Mehdi Kasumov/Shutterstock

Washington D.C., May 2, 2025 / 16:38 pm (CNA).

A panel of scholars at The Catholic University of America (CUA) addressed what they believe the cardinals may be looking for when electing the next pope but acknowledged there is no way to know what direction the upcoming conclave — which begins May 7 — will go.

On Thursday, May 1, CUA chaplain Father Aquinas Guilbeau, OP, led a panel on the subject of Pope Francis’ legacy and the future of the Church that included CUA School of Theology dean and professor Joseph Capizzi, senior fellow for the Catholic Association Ashley McGuire, and Stephen White, executive director for the Catholic Project.

White said he believes that “at least some of the cardinals will be looking to make the case for a more regular application and appreciation for the significance of law in the Church.” He clarified: “What I’m not saying is that this past pontificate was lawless.”

“But,” he continued, “I think the rule of law and the equitable application of law is not simply about following the rules.”

“It’s a constituent of the common good of the Church. There’s a reason the Church has law, not just simply to be efficient. It helps to organize and maintain the common good of the Church, including the common good of the pope who wants to see that the Church’s law is not only being applied, but it’s being applied fairly. I think that would be of concern for some of the cardinals.”

McGuire said Pope Francis was “handed a couple of very difficult, acute crises that are still not fully resolved,” including abuse allegations and financial issues, and believes the next step is to put those to rest and focus on other issues. 

“I think … the Church has two different problems it has to deal with,” McGuire said. “It’s got in the West this march of secularization; what’s going on in Germany, we’re bordering on heresy. And the fact that even in a place like the United States, you have regular Mass attendees who aren’t really necessarily following Church doctrine.”

“But then you have in parts of the developing world, which is where the Church is growing the fastest, regular reports of slaughter… and parishioners going to church not knowing if they’re going to survive Mass.”

“The Church has to govern two very different lived realities of being Catholic,” McGuire concluded.

Capizzi said matters like these should not be at the forefront of how the pope should be selected but rather the focus should solely be on electing “a holy man” and “a good man.”

“We’re trying to pull as many people into the boat as possible to keep them on the boat. That’s the task,” he said.

White added that the cardinals need to ask “what is the office of Peter?” and “get back to the basics” when electing the next pontiff.

With a new pope to be elected soon, the panel also reflected on Pope Francis and his legacy.

Guilbeau said Pope Francis’ belief that “the Church’s intellectual tradition, the fullness of her spiritual, liturgical, sacramental tradition is meant for everybody and emphasis on the margins” will be remembered.

They specifically mentioned his dedication to the unborn, the poor, and immigrants, and highlighted his mercy. 

McGuire said she believes people will remember how Pope Francis would go out to be with the public, “physically hugging people.” In other words, “what you would picture Jesus doing.”

A policeman stands guard at a checkpoint along a street in Srinagar on May 1, 2025. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has given the military “operational freedom” to respond to a deadly attack in Kashmir that New Delhi has blamed on arch-rival Pakistan, a senior government said on April 29. / Credit: BASIT ZARGAR/Middle East Images/AFP via Getty Images

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, May 2, 2025 / 15:14 pm (CNA).

Here is a roundup of Catholic world news that you might have missed this week:

Catholic who refused to deny his faith shot by Islamic terrorists in India  

A 57-year-old Catholic man, Sushil Nathaniel, was among 26 people killed during a terrorist attack in Kashmir (also called Pahalgam), India, last week, according to an Asia News report. 

Nathaniel’s wife, who escaped with their two children, told AsiaNews that her husband was shot in the head by terrorists after refusing to recite the Islamic declaration of faith. 

While celebrating his funeral, Bishop Thomas Kuttimackal of Indore described Nathaniel as a “martyr” and praised his “courage in not hiding his faith even under threat of arms.” 

Lebanese Christians remember ‘special paternal love’ of Pope Francis

Lebanese Christians in the country and diaspora communities around the world have been taking the time to memorialize Pope Francis, remembering his “special paternal love” for Lebanon, according to ACI MENA, CNA’s Arabic-language news partner.

Bishops led solemn liturgies in Beirut, Zgharta, and Sidon, while Patriarch Bechara Al-Rahi, recovering from surgery, sent a heartfelt message praising the pope’s spiritual impact. In Rome, Bishop Youssef Soueif led a Mass at the Mar Maroun Church with members of the Lebanese diaspora. Even in Lomé, Togo, Maronite faithful gathered to honor the late pontiff in prayer.

Throughout his papacy, Pope Francis held a deep and fatherly affection for Lebanon. From backing youth-led protests in 2019 to calling for unity among political leaders, he remained attentive to the country’s struggles. Though a scheduled 2022 visit was postponed, Francis continued to speak out for Lebanon, notably urging the swift election of a president in 2024. In 2021, he convened Lebanese Christian leaders at the Vatican for a special day of prayer and reflection dedicated to the country’s future.

Conference on role of Christians in the future of Syria takes place in Aleppo

In Aleppo, the Catholic Education Association launched the first “Pentecost of a Nation” conference to highlight the role of Syrian Christians in shaping the country’s future, ACI MENA reported on Wednesday.

The event brought together 250 participants from diverse religious and ethnic backgrounds to discuss constitutional reform, social justice, and national identity. Church leaders emphasized the Christian community’s historical role as active contributors — not passive observers — of Syria’s development while advocating for forgiveness, coexistence, and civic engagement.

Diplomats in Nigeria eulogize Pope Francis as ‘leader for truth, peace, equality’

Members of the diplomatic corps in Nigeria have paid glowing tribute to Pope Francis, describing the late pontiff as a global beacon of peace, truth, humility, and justice.

“Words will fail me on this one. He was a wonderful human being, a leader for truth, for peace, for equality, for solidarity, for unity, and for love,” the honorary consul of Colombia to Nigeria, Maricel Romero, told ACI Africa, CNA’s news partner in Africa, on Tuesday after a memorial Mass in Pope Francis’ honor. 

European Union Ambassador to Nigeria and Eurasia Gautier Mignot praised the late pope for his dedication to “the most humble, the most vulnerable, and the poorest.” 

Only 15% of South Korean Catholics attend Mass, according to latest study

A new study published by the Catholic bishops’ conference in Korea found that about 15 in every 100 Catholics in South Korea attended Mass regularly last year, UCA News reported. 

The study, titled “2024 Statistics on the Catholic Church in Korea” found that the total number of Catholics in South Korea in 2024 was almost 6 million, about 11.4% of the total population.

German cardinal describes ‘brotherly and cordial mood’ among cardinals in Rome

Cardinal Rainer Maria Woelki, the archbishop of Cologne, Germany, described the attitude among cardinals gathered in Rome for the conclave as “brotherly and cordial” in an interview with CNA Deutsch, CNA’s German-language news partner, on Tuesday.

“Most cardinals have not seen each other for a long time and many are happy and have been happy to see each other again,” he said. “That’s how I felt too.”

At the general congregations, the meetings of the cardinals in preparation for the conclave, which begins May 7, “a very concentrated, calm, objective working mood” prevails, Woelki explained.

“With all the differences and the different perspectives that are naturally brought in there, from the different partial Churches and with the different cultures and mentalities,” he said there is “simply a good togetherness.”

Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Camden, New Jersey. / Credit: Farragutful via Wikimedia (CC BY_SA 4.0)

CNA Staff, May 2, 2025 / 11:27 am (CNA).

Camden, New Jersey, Bishop Joseph Williams this week said he will do right by abuse victims in his diocese amid an ongoing legal dispute over a potential grand jury inquiry into clergy abuse there. 

The Camden Diocese has been embroiled in a yearslong fight with the state over whether the government can empanel a grand jury to investigate allegations of abuse by priests and other Church officials. The diocese has argued that the abuse in question would not fall under the purview of a grand jury. 

The state Supreme Court said in March that it would consider whether or not to allow the grand jury to be convened to consider the allegations. 

The high court heard arguments from both the diocese and the state this week, with news outlets reporting that some justices sounded “skeptical” over the diocese’s arguments against a possible grand jury. 

‘I will do the right thing by survivors’

In a letter in the Catholic Star Herald on Thursday, Williams said he was “new to being a diocesan bishop and new to the complex legal arguments and proceedings involved” in the ongoing case. The prelate was made bishop of the Camden Diocese earlier this year, having previously served as coadjutor bishop there. 

“[P]lease be assured that I am diligently studying our current legal position and am consulting survivors, fellow bishops, legal experts, and diocesan officers — as well as my own conscience — so that I will do the right thing by the survivors, the Church, and [the] state of New Jersey,” the bishop said. 

“I ask [for] your prayers for all involved,” he added. 

Williams in his letter also noted a Monday report in the Philadelphia Inquirer regarding the controversy, one that reported that the bishop had declined to comment to the newspaper.

“I was completely unaware of any invitation on behalf of the Philadelphia Inquirer to speak about the case currently being presented to the New Jersey Supreme Court, and I thought the journalists had made a mistake,” the bishop said. 

“They had not,” he continued, writing that the mistake “was on our end” and that the bishop himself had “never received” the request for comment from the paper. 

The prelate said he reached out to the Inquirer journalists “to apologize for this miscommunication and to offer to meet with them in person at their earliest convenience.”

“I have always had a deep respect for the vocation of journalists and would have been eager to sit down with him to discuss this important matter,” Williams wrote.

Tens of thousands of young pilgrims, who took part in Jubilee of Teenagers festivities from April 25-27, 2025, were also present at the Divine Mercy Mass dedicated to the late pontiff. / Credit: Daniel Ibanez/Vatican Media

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, May 2, 2025 / 06:00 am (CNA).

The Archdiocese of Baltimore is launching a new initiative this summer to address the crisis of disaffiliation among young people in the Church through a proactive missionary “lab” program. 

“The impetus behind it is really giving tools to young people who notice things and have great ideas about how to respond to needs or opportunities in their community, and giving it a structure that allows them to practice listening, practice prayerful discernment, and implement whatever project they’re working on,” the archdiocese’s coordinator of missionary discipleship, Rena Black, told CNA. 

“When a young person is the driving force behind something, that lights a fire under people in a way that nothing else can,” she said. “So we’re trying to harness that a little bit.” 

According to Black, the Archdiocesan Youth Missionary Protagonism Lab (AYMP Lab) will serve as a “space of experimentation to discover something new” and will consist of gathering up to 10 teams of two to four young people and one to two adults from across the archdiocese who will meet monthly to work through the stages of designing projects that fill a need in their communities. 

Young people in these teams will also be assisted by their parishes and other adult mentors as they carry out their projects. 

Participation will include a special missionary discipleship training as well as monthly “synodal-style advising” among the teams via Zoom, according to the website. 

While most of the program’s meetings will take place remotely, Black emphasized that young people will “not just be passive recipients” but rather “actively engaging in the process of giving and receiving feedback to one another, sharing things they’ve learned, and things that have come up in their own prayer and reflection that might be relevant to others and other projects.” 

The purpose of the meetings, Black said, is to accompany the teams in a “synodal” style process, rather than a merely instructional one, and to incentivize young people to spearhead the initiatives while providing necessary guidance and feedback. 

The teams will also partake in an in-person retreat and send-off liturgy at the end of the program. 

The AYMP Lab was partially inspired by a program in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia called the Youth Co-Leadership Protagonism Initiative, as well as by the work carried out by the National Federation for Catholic Youth Ministry.

Black emphasized the importance of bringing “the wisdom of prayerful design thinking into the process” and listening to the needs of the community as a key component of the program. 

Black said that to date she has received applications from “a handful” of teams but is hoping to draw in even more, particularly from underserved areas in the archdiocese. 

The program has received about $6,500 in grants from the Mark D. Pacione Foundation to kickstart its local efforts, Black said, although she said she hopes to secure more funding as the program grows.

“That’s part of my hope,” she said, “that we prepare them not just for the local micro grant but give them skills to be able to apply for even more funding.”

Groups of teens are currently invited to apply with their adult mentors to participate in the program until the application deadline on May 19.

“Special consideration will be given to applicant teams from communities without full-time paid youth ministry staff as well as teams who represent urban, rural, and culturally-shared pastorates,” the site notes. 

“It’s a wild time in our archdiocese right now,” Black said, noting the lowering of the confirmation age and the loss of its Auxiliary Bishop Bruce Lewandowski, who has been appointed to serve as bishop of the Diocese of Providence, Rhode Island. The archdiocese has also been bankrupt since 2023 following an influx of civil lawsuits that came after a state law passed ending the statute of limitations for child sex abuse cases, some of which stretched back decades. 

“It’s the time where we’re going, ‘Holy Spirit, tell us what comes next,’” Black said, “and the Church is telling us, ‘Don’t forget to listen to young people’ in that question of what comes next, because they’re the churches now, but they are also the Church of the future.” 

“So if we fail to listen to them now,” she concluded, “we are not preparing for the future.”

CatholicVote president Brian Burch speaks during a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on his nomination for to be ambassador to the Holy See on Tuesday, April 8, 2025, on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. / Credit: AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, May 1, 2025 / 18:23 pm (CNA).

In a party-line vote on Wednesday, the U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations advanced Brian Burch’s nomination for U.S. ambassador to the Holy See to the full Senate for final confirmation. 

All 12 Republicans on the Senate committee, chaired by Sen. James Risch, R-Idaho, voted in favor of Burch, while all 10 of the committee’s Democrat members voted against him. Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-South Dakota, now has to bring the nomination to the full Senate floor for a final vote. 

The action comes more than three weeks after Burch’s hearing before the committee, during which he fielded questions on foreign aid, the Vatican-China deal, and the Holy See’s role in securing a lasting peace in the Middle East. 

If confirmed by the full Senate, Burch, who is president of CatholicVote, will step down from his position at the organization, CatholicVote indicated.

During his hearing earlier this month, Burch emphasized his support for the Trump administration’s foreign spending cuts, which have had a widespread impact on Catholic aid organizations, saying: “I think the partnership with the Holy See can be a very good one, but I think those partners have to understand that our foreign aid is not endless, that we can’t fund every last program.”

On China, Burch said he intended to encourage the Vatican to apply pressure on the communist regime concerning its human rights abuses and reported violation of its deal with the Vatican regarding the appointment of bishops. 

“I would encourage the Holy See as the United States ambassador, if I’m confirmed, to resist the idea that a foreign government has any role whatsoever in choosing the leadership of a private religious institution,” he said.

Burch stated his intentions to support Vatican diplomacy to end the Israel-Hamas war, telling the committee he believed the Holy See “can play a significant role” by being “a partner in that conversation and [delivering] the necessary moral urgency of ending this conflict and hopefully securing a durable peace.”

President Donald Trump last December nominated Burch to serve as ambassador to the Vatican, writing in a Truth Social post that “he represented me well during the last election, having garnered more Catholic votes than any presidential candidate in history!” and adding: “Brian loves his Church and the United States — he will make us all proud.”

CatholicVote is a political advocacy group that endorsed Trump in January 2024 and ran advertisements in support of Trump during his campaign. The organization says it spent over $10 million on the 2024 elections.

Burch, who lives in the Chicago suburbs, is a graduate of the University of Dallas, a private Catholic school. In 2020, he wrote a book titled “A New Catholic Moment: Donald Trump and the Politics of the Common Good.” 

According to his biography on CatholicVote, Burch has received the Cardinal O’Connor Defender of the Faith Award from Legatus International and the St. Thomas More Award for Catholic Citizenship by Catholic Citizens of Illinois.

Bishop Robert Barron speaks alongside President Donald Trump (right) during a National Day of Prayer event on May 1, 2025, in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington, D.C. / Credit: MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, May 1, 2025 / 16:53 pm (CNA).

Two members of the Catholic hierarchy in the United States — Cardinal Timothy Dolan and Bishop Robert Barron — have been tapped to serve on a new presidential commission on religious liberty created by President Donald Trump on Thursday, May 1.

Trump signed an executive order creating the Religious Liberty Commission in the White House Rose Garden surrounded by faith leaders from various traditions. The announcement coincided with the country’s National Day of Prayer.

“As we bow our heads this beautiful day in the Rose Garden on the National Day of Prayer, we once again entrust our lives, our liberties, our happiness to the Creator who gave them to us and who loves us,” said Trump, a self-described “nondenominational Christian,” before signing the order. 

The new Religious Liberty Commission is tasked with creating a report on current threats to freedom of religion and strategies to enhance legal protections for those rights. The report will also outline the foundations of religious liberty in the United States and provide guidance on how to increase the awareness of peaceful religious pluralism in the country.

Some of the commission’s key areas of focus will include parental rights in religious education, school choice, conscience protections, free speech for religious entities, institutional autonomy, and attacks on houses of worship. It was created due to concerns that federal and state policies have infringed upon those rights. 

Members of the newly formed commission include the two Catholic prelates and Protestant leaders, such as Pastor Paula White, along with rabbis and imams. The Catholic president of the Ethics and Public Policy Center, Ryan Anderson, was also appointed to serve on the commission, as was psychologist and television personality Dr. Phil McGraw and renowned neurosurgeon Dr. Ben Carson.

The commission will be chaired by Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, an evangelical Christian who Trump said gave him the idea to create the commission.

“No one should get between God and a believer,” Patrick said at the event. “No one should get between God and those seeking him.”

Bishop Barron: ‘We are indeed a nation under God’

Bishop Robert Barron of the Diocese of Winona-Rochester, Minnesota, was in attendance and delivered a prayer for the country and the president. Dolan, the archbishop of New York and a cardinal elector in the upcoming papal conclave, is in Rome.

“We know that the rights we enjoy to life, to liberty, to the pursuit of happiness are given not by government or popular consensus but by [God],” Barron said in his prayer, adding that “we are indeed a nation under God.”

Barron said religious liberty “has been reverenced from the very beginning of our republic as our first freedom” and prayed that God “might give us the grace to preserve it and strengthen it.”

He prayed that God will “bless our president” and that Trump will “strive always to please you in what he says and does, and may he govern under the direction of your providence.” He prayed that the president’s decisions will “always be particularly mindful of those who suffer and those who are most in need.”

Barron also prayed for the American people to always be “architects of justice and makers of peace” and asked God for a country that is “prosperous and strong, but above all righteous and docile to your will.”

In a post on X, Barron expressed gratitude toward Trump for appointing him to serve on the commission and said that religious liberty is a central concern of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.

“I see my task as bringing the perspective of Catholic social teaching to bear as the commission endeavors to shape public policy in this matter,” he wrote. 

Barron added that he will try to model his service after Father Theodore Hesburgh, who was the president of the University of Notre Dame from 1952–1987 and served on 16 different presidential commissions in Republican and Democratic administrations.

Trump: ‘We have to trust our God’

At the event, Trump remarked that the National Day of Prayer is “a tradition older than our independence itself” and emphasized the importance of Americans putting their trust in God.

“We have to trust our God because our God knows exactly where we’re going, what we’re doing, knows every inch of our lives,” the president said. “And may he continue to hear our prayers to guide our steps and build up our beloved nation to even greater heights. We’re in the process of doing some great things.”

Trump, who earlier this year created the White House Faith Office and the Task Force to Eradicate Anti-Christian Bias, said that activity in the Faith Office has been robust with “a lot of people going back and forth.” 

“That’s what we want: to defend and represent people of all faiths and their religious freedoms at home and abroad,” the president said. 

He suggested that because he created the commission on religious liberty with several faith leaders, “we’re probably going to be sued tomorrow” and said in a mocking voice: “Separation of church and state — can’t do that, right?” He asserted that Attorney General Pam Bondi “will win that suit.”

“The separation, is that a good thing or a bad thing?” Trump said. “I’m not sure. But whether there’s separation or not, you guys are in the White House where you should be and you’re representing our country. And we’re bringing religion back to our country.”

During his speech, Trump also spoke about his efforts to combat antisemitism and the ongoing work to get the hostages held by Hamas returned home. He also discussed budget negotiations and the desire to prevent tax hikes, the reduced rate of illegal immigration, and potential trade deals with countries he has subjected to higher tariffs for trade with the U.S.