St. James the Less Catholic Parish

Catholic Health building in Buffalo, New York. / Credit: Andre Carrotflower, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

CNA Staff, May 21, 2025 / 14:01 pm (CNA).

A Catholic health care system in New York state has agreed to pay a multimillion-dollar settlement over allegations that it violated federal Medicare reporting laws. 

The U.S. attorney’s office for the western district of New York said in a press release that Catholic Health Systems agreed to pay nearly $3.3 million in order to resolve allegations that the network “knowingly submitted or caused to be submitted false claims to the Medicare program” in violation of federal law. 

The government had alleged that the Catholic hospital system violated the Stark Law, a federal rule that prohibits health care entities from receiving Medicare payments for services referred by a physician with “a financial relationship to the health care entity.”

The prosecutor’s office claimed that the Catholic health provider “had financial relationships with nonemployee physicians” who “referred health services, such as laboratory testing, hospital services, or medical supplies, to CHS and its affiliated hospitals.”

“The Stark Law is designed to protect Medicare by ensuring that physician referrals are not influenced by financial interest,” U.S. Attorney Michael DiGiacomo said in the press release, stating that his office “is committed to holding health care providers accountable who engage in such conduct.”

Though the Catholic medical system will pay more than $3 million over the claims, the payout does not establish the guilt of the hospital, the government said. 

“The claims resolved by the settlement are allegations only and there has been no determination of liability,” the press release stated. 

Federal authorities were originally tipped off to the alleged violations by Gary Tucker, a former executive in the Catholic Health Systems network. Under whistleblower provisions, Tucker “will receive a share of the settlement,” the government said. 

In a statement provided to CNA, Leonardo Sette-Camara, the general counsel of the hospital system, said: “Defending these types of subjective allegations requires an unsustainable and unacceptable allocation of Catholic Health resources."

"This investigation was never about the quality of care provided to our patients. By resolving the case now, we can move forward and remain fully focused on delivering the highest standard of care," he said.

This report was updated on Wednesday, May 21, 2025 at 3:00 p.m. with a statement from the hospital.

Students pose after being called to “Petra House” at JSerra Catholic High School in Orange County, California, April 28, 2025. / Credit: JSerra Catholic High School

CNA Staff, May 21, 2025 / 10:05 am (CNA).

A Catholic school in Southern California is preparing to launch a “house system” that it says will help students connect with one another and foster leadership among young Catholics preparing to go out into the world. 

JSerra Catholic High School in San Juan Capistrano said in a press release that the house arrangement will “foster community, provide mentorship, and cultivate leadership rooted in Gospel values.”

The six houses into which students can be grouped — Alta, Carmel, Monterey, San Onofre, Petra, and Ventura — are “each named after places significant to the life of St. Junipero Serra.”

The school said the new program “comes at a critical time as young people are experiencing greater social disconnection and mental health challenges than ever before.” It cited studies indicating that young people are experiencing extreme social disconnection with their peers, engaging in “70% less social interaction with their friends” compared with two decades ago. 

“This new house system is more than just a way to build school spirit, it’s a transformative approach to helping our students grow as leaders and deepen their faith,” Eric Stroupe, the principal of JSerra, said in the release. 

‘We really want God to do something miraculous’

Brian Ong, the house director for JSerra, told CNA in an interview that the school has developed the house system — and its approach to education more generally — with the mindset of “fields, not factories.” 

“The Bible often uses metaphors from the field,” he pointed out. “We’re trying to cultivate the seeds we feel God has planted. We really want God to do something miraculous.”

The school, founded in 2003, had been debating launching the house system for several years starting in 2021, Ong said. He pointed out that numerous other schools in the area have house systems of their own, though JSerra wanted to develop a unique approach to the practice. 

“Last year we decided that this was something God was leading us to do,” he said. 

One goal of the house system, Ong said, is to help the large student body feel more connected to those with whom they might not normally interact.

“We have approximately 1,300 students at JSerra,” he said. “When you ask students how many people they really know, it’s usually less than 50. Even if you double that, there’s still 1,200 students you don’t know.” 

“You don’t interact [with others] because you don’t play the same sport, or do the same extracurricular activity, or they’re in the business magnet and you’re in the law magnet,” Ong acknowledged. With the house system, “we’re trying to intentionally have them interact with each other if they wouldn’t normally.”

There is a significant mentorship component to the program as well. 

“We want every student at JSerra to have a mentor,” he said. Students will meet in their “dens” three times per week for 30 minutes each time, speaking to older mentors and “ensuring that freshmen and sophomores experience friendship, encouragement, and support,” according to the school. 

Houses will also allow students a chance to excel in leadership, he said, with opportunities for students to serve as presidents, curriculum directors, and other roles to teach them real-life skills. 

Ong said the school has already hosted a “calling day” in which students were “called” into their respective houses. “Next school year it will really take off,” he said. 

The parental response has been “overwhelmingly positive” as the program has launched, Ong said. 

Other Catholic institutions have implemented similar programs. Franciscan University of Steubenville’s “faith households,” for instance, bring students together “to help members grow in mind, body, and spirit through prayer, mutual support, and accountability in the ongoing conversion process exemplified in the life of St. Francis.”

The university allows students to join one of several dozen single-sex households together with others who “seek to do the will of the Father in their lives.” Joining a household is not a requirement, but according to Gregg Miliote, director of media relations at Franciscan University, the vast majority of students do join one. There are currently 49 different households at Franciscan University.

At JSerra, meanwhile, student houses “will earn points through competitions, service projects, and school spirit initiatives, culminating in the awarding of the JSerra Cup to the top-performing house at the year’s end.”

Ong said the system “immerses students in very practical and hands-on ways into a culture that allows them to internalize the core Christian values we idealize as a school.” The program “multiplies their opportunities for exercising the virtues that are at the heart of our mission,” he said.

With Speaker of the House Mike Johnson by his side, President Donald Trump speaks to the press following a House Republican meeting at the U.S. Capitol on May 20, 2025, in Washington, D.C. / Credit: Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, May 21, 2025 / 05:15 am (CNA).

President Donald Trump met Louis Prevost, the oldest brother of Pope Leo XIV, at the White House on Tuesday, according to the president’s special assistant, Margo Martin.

While speaking to reporters on Capitol Hill earlier the same day, Trump said he likes Pope Leo XIV and was looking forward to meeting with the pope’s brother.

“I like the pope and I like the pope’s brother,” Trump told reporters after meeting with House Republicans in an attempt to rally support behind a budget reconciliation bill.

Trump noted that the pope’s brother Louis “is a major MAGA fan,” alluding to the “Make America Great Again” campaign slogan.

“I look forward to getting him to the White House,” Trump said. “I want to shake his hand. I want to give him a big hug.”

According to a photo posted to X by Martin late on Tuesday night, Trump and Vice President JD Vance met Louis Prevost and his wife, Deborah, in the Oval Office.

Louis Prevost, a Florida resident, U.S. Navy veteran, and older brother to Leo, sat beside Second Lady Usha Vance at Pope Leo’s inaugural Mass on Sunday, May 18. He also joined Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio when the U.S. delegation met with Leo on Monday, May 19.

After Leo was elected, becoming the first U.S.-born pope, Louis Prevost did several media interviews expressing his happiness for his brother and confidence in his leadership. Later, some media outlets found social media posts by Louis that also evidenced strong support for Trump and criticism of Democrats.

In an interview on “Piers Morgan Uncensored” on May 12, Prevost responded to criticism he received in response to some of his derogatory comments about Democrats.

“I posted it and I wouldn’t have posted it if I didn’t kind of believe it,” Prevost said. “However, I had no idea that what was coming [Leo becoming pope] was coming this soon and I can tell you, since then, I’ve been very quiet, biting my tongue.”

“I don’t want to create waves that don’t need to be there because I’m a MAGA type and I have my beliefs,” he said. “I don’t need to create heat for [Leo]. He’s going to have enough to handle as it is without the press going ‘the pope’s brother says this.’ He doesn’t need that.”

When the U.S. delegation met with Leo, Vance handed Pope Leo a letter from Trump that invited the pontiff to the United States for a meeting at the White House. Leo said he would make the visit “at some point.”

Vance told Leo “we’ll pray for you” and said: “As you can probably imagine, in the United States the people are extremely excited.”

This story was updated on May 21, 2025, at 5:15 a.m. ET with the information that Trump and Louis Prevost had met.

“Leo XIV: Portrait of the First American Pope,” written by Matthew Bunson, vice president and editorial director at EWTN News, is the first authoritative biographical portrait of Cardinal Robert Prevost, who was elected the new Holy Father on May 8, 2025. / Credit: EWTN Publishing

CNA Staff, May 20, 2025 / 17:58 pm (CNA).

A new biography of Pope Leo XIV, the first pope from the United States, will be available May 21 from EWTN and is now available for preorder. 

“Leo XIV: Portrait of the First American Pope,” written by Matthew Bunson, vice president and editorial director at EWTN News, is the first authoritative biographical portrait of Cardinal Robert Prevost, 69, who was elected the new Holy Father on May 8. 

The book will be officially launched at a May 22 event set to be held at the Vatican’s Campo Santo Teutonico in the Aula Benedict XVI at 5:30 p.m. local time.

The biography provides an “assessment of his three fundamental roles as a successor to the apostles: his sanctifying role as a priest, his governing role as a bishop, and his prophetic role as a teacher and missionary,” EWTN said. 

Michael Warsaw, EWTN’s CEO and chairman of the board, told CNA that he is “excited that EWTN Publishing is releasing this biography of Pope Leo XIV so soon after his election.”

“As the leading Catholic media platform, our aim is to share the Holy Father’s story with the world, starting with his early life, to help people connect with the man now serving as the vicar of Christ,” Warsaw said.

“EWTN is uniquely positioned to publish this biography of the first pope born in the United States and the second pope from the Americas. Like Pope Leo, the EWTN family is global, but our roots are American.”

Bunson, a longtime Vatican journalist and Church expert who has written over 50 books, said he hopes to help to inform readers about the importance of Pope Leo’s membership in the venerable Order of St. Augustine and the fact that he is both a mathematician and canon lawyer, and how those credentials will help him address the Vatican’s financial woes. 

Bunson will also discuss the significance of the choice of the name “Leo” and what that says about the pope’s vision for his pontificate. 

“He has also taken the name Leo XIV in honor of Leo XIII, the great pope from 1878 to 1903, who is like Pope Leo XIV taken up profoundly with the concerns of the encounter between the Church and modernity,” Bunson said May 15, speaking to “EWTN News Nightly.” 

“We had the great industrial revolution at the end of the 19th century; [Leo XIV] is very concerned about the technological and digital revolutions that are taking place right now in the 21st century. So he’s a man very much of his times but somebody who understands the importance of the perennial aspects of Church teaching, to apply them to all the modern situations that we can find ourselves in.”

Additionally, Bunson’s book touches on some of the moral and theological issues currently being debated in the Church and public arena, offering the “informed, balanced, accurate picture of our new Holy Father that the world has been waiting for.”

“We saw that with Pope Benedict XVI [elected] in 2005 and Pope Francis in 2013, many of the things that you read or watch in secular media either weren’t accurate or were sort of a deliberate misrepresentation,” Bunson said.

“So what we want to do with this book is to offer a first portrait of the life, formation, and journey of Robert Francis Prevost from Chicago all the way to Rome, and now, of course, as Pope Leo XIV.”

The future Pope Leo XIV was born on Sept. 14, 1955, in Chicago. He studied at an Augustinian minor seminary in Michigan and later earned a bachelor of science degree in mathematics from Villanova University in Pennsylvania. He joined the Order of St. Augustine, taking solemn vows in 1981, and was ordained to the priesthood in June 1982 after studying theology at the Catholic Theological Union of Chicago.

After being ordained, Leo earned a doctorate in canon law from Rome’s Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas (also known as the Angelicum) in 1987. He spent over a decade ministering in South America before being called back to the U.S. to head the Midwest Augustinians and was later elected prior general of the Augustinian order, serving in that role for a dozen years. 

He returned to South America after Pope Francis in 2014 appointed him bishop in Chiclayo, Peru. Francis later called him to Rome in 2023 to head the highly influential Dicastery for Bishops.

The book about Leo’s life is available for preorder on EWTN Religious Catalogue.

Credit: Gregory Dean/Shutterstock

Denver, Colo., May 20, 2025 / 17:28 pm (CNA).

The Archdiocese of Denver launched a vocations campaign this weekend to connect young men who may be interested in pursuing the priesthood with the archdiocese.

The “Called By Name” campaign invites parishioners across the archdiocese to nominate young men ages 15 to 35 who they think may have the qualities to become a priest.

The archdiocese is one of nine dioceses currently collaborating with Vianney Vocations, an organization founded in 2009 that helps support vocations efforts in Catholic dioceses around the U.S.

Men who are nominated by their fellow parishioners will receive a letter from the archbishop congratulating them for being recognized.

The letter encourages them to be open to God’s call in their lives and invites them to connect with Father Jason Wallace, the archdiocesan director of vocations, who will send a weekly message about discernment to nominees. Nominees are also invited to attend the small discernment groups led by priests or deacons trained by Vianney Vocations.

While Denver is one of the leading dioceses in the U.S. for vocations by size, according to a 2025 report, Denver Archbishop Samuel Aquila has in recent years expressed his hope to see more seminarians in the growing archdiocese. 

“Denver is good soil, so we’re really hopeful that there’ll be a lot of fruit from this,” Chris Kreslins, senior client manager for Vianney Vocations, told CNA. 

Rather than recruiting abroad, many bishops are moving toward encouraging “homegrown guys” to discern and apply for seminary, Kreslins noted.

“The hope and the goal is that there will be more men applying for seminary,” Kreslins said. 

With more priests, “parishes will have the priests they need to minister to the people of God” and priests will not be “so thinly stretched,” he noted. 

These vocation campaigns across the country come amid a decadeslong decline in men pursuing the priesthood. Globally, the number of priests has been decreasing in recent years, except in Africa and Asia, where vocations to the priesthood are on the rise.  

To kick off the campaign in Denver on Sunday, priests across the archdiocese shared their vocation stories in their homilies and invited parishioners to nominate young men to consider discerning. 

“Some men may need to hear from others that their faith is recognized and that they possess the qualities of a good priest,” Kreslins explained. “Sometimes, we need another person to lead us to Jesus.” 

Father Brian Larkin, pastor of Our Lady of Lourdes Parish in Englewood, Colorado, shared his own experience discerning the priesthood in a homily on Sunday.

“When I was wrestling with if God was calling me, my first question wasn’t necessarily the office of priesthood,” Larkin said. “My question was, ‘God, are you calling me to give you everything?’”

“I felt this pull on my heart that God was calling me to give up my hopes and my dreams,” Larkin said. “What I saw at first was just a price tag.”  

“Maybe some of you are called to the priesthood. Maybe some of you are called to a consecrated life. I don’t know,” Larkin said to an array of parishioners. “You are called to a radical love, and I do know that. Every single one of us [is].”

“We’ve seen tremendous growth in the faith and the number of Catholics. But then we also have a need when we see that growth, to serve all those people,” Wallace told the Denver Catholic. “The Archdiocese of Denver is in need of many more vocations.”

In his homily, Larkin prayed for more priests who are “on fire” for God.  

“Jesus, we pray for more priests — not just any priests,” Larkin said. “Only priests [who] will be on fire with the love of God. Not men who are perfect, not men who have no mistakes, not men who know everything, but men whose hearts have been transformed.” 

null / Credit: Mehdi Kasumov/Shutterstock

CNA Staff, May 20, 2025 / 16:28 pm (CNA).

The Catholic University of America (CUA) announced Monday that it has eliminated 7% of its workforce in its final step to address the university’s structural deficit.

According to CUA — one of two pontifical universities in the U.S. and the only institution of higher education founded by the U.S. bishops — 66 active staff positions were eliminated as an unfortunate but “essential” part of the university’s efforts to balance its budget, which the university announced last year was at a deficit of $30 million. 

The Washington, D.C.-based institution took several steps to reduce its annual operating budget — cutting operational costs, launching several new “revenue-generating” academic programs, offering voluntary separation packages to some faculty, and eliminating some staff positions, according to the Monday announcement by university president Peter Kilpatrick.

At the end of 2024, the university president had announced that due to rising costs and declining enrollment revenue, the university’s annual budget faced a $30 million deficit and needed to be cut by 10%.

In a statement shared with CNA, the university said the cuts were the final part of the plan to balance the budget, which could not be done “without also eliminating staff positions.”

“Originally announced last October, the plan required adjusting the university’s operating budget by approximately 10% ($30 million), which included operational budget reductions, the launch of several new revenue-generating academic programs, and staffing adjustments,” the statement continued.

Completing the “comprehensive financial resiliency plan” places the university “on solid financial footing for the first time in years,” according to the statement. 

The university said it is prioritizing “supporting affected employees” through “enhanced severance packages and outplacement services.” 

Staff members whose positions were cut will have a monthlong paid leave with full benefits.

“For our departing colleagues, we are providing comprehensive transition support, which includes an enhanced severance package made possible in part through the compassionate support of our dedicated donors,” Kilpatrick said in the announcement.

“Each person affected has helped shape our institution and contributed to our mission in meaningful ways,” he continued.

Kilpatrick noted that “this news affects our entire community” and pledged to provide support.

“For those directly affected, this represents a significant personal and professional change. For remaining faculty and staff, this may bring feelings of uncertainty and concern for colleagues,” Kilpatrick said. “Please know that we are committed to providing support for all members of our university family during this challenging time.”

Amid these challenges, Kilpatrick is looking ahead to prioritize the university’s mission while “on solid financial ground.”

“Now we can channel our energy toward strengthening our academic programs, enhancing the student experience, and fulfilling our founding mission to give to the nation, the Church, and the world its very best citizens — our graduates.”

The city of Baltimore. / Credit: Sean Pavone/Shutterstock

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, May 20, 2025 / 15:20 pm (CNA).

The Archdiocese of Baltimore has been accused of defying a Vatican order after allegedly refusing to reopen a Maryland parish despite a letter from the Holy See halting its closure. 

In the spring of 2024 Archbishop William Lori announced the “difficult” decision to merge parishes in Baltimore and surrounding suburbs as part of the archdiocesan “Seek the City to Come” initiative. Among the parishes slated for closure was St. Clare in Essex.

Several St. Clare parishioners who disagreed with the plan sought assistance from Save Rome of the West, an organization that offers consulting services “to aid in the preservation and maintenance of Catholic churches and parishes.”

Group co-founders Jason Bolte and Brody Hale helped parishioner Barbara Pivonski write and send a formal letter to the Vatican in October 2024 appealing Lori’s plan and requesting that the church reopen. 

In February they received a letter from Cardinal Lazzaro You Heung-sik, prefect of the Dicastery for the Clergy, stating that the “requested suspension” of the “extinctive merger” was “granted for the duration of the recourse.”

Bolte, Hale, and Pivonski believed the response from the Vatican approved the reopening of St. Clare while the appeal was under review, but the archdiocese disputed that interpretation. Diane Barr, a canonical consultant to the archbishop’s office, told parishioners in a letter that the suspension only meant that the church property could not be sold.

Archdiocesan spokesman Christian Kendzierski, meanwhile, told CNA that the archdiocese “is faithfully following the requirements included in the letter received from the Dicastery for Clergy.” 

The parish “remains open for baptisms, weddings, and funerals,” he said. 

“When a decree is suspended, it means that the actions which it orders, all of them, are suspended,” Hale, an attorney, told CNA. Yet “the Archdiocese of Baltimore … has refused to do that.”

Hale said if the Dicastery for the Clergy “wishe[d] to only suspend part of the decree, or some aspect of it, it would have stated as much.”

The lawyer said prior to February he had “never seen a single parish suspension issued by the Dicastery for Clergy,” and now he has witnessed more than a dozen. 

More than 12 parishes in the Diocese of Buffalo in New York similarly appealed a diocesan restructuring plan to the Vatican, asking that their churches stay open. The Vatican granted those requests and the Buffalo Diocese allowed them to remain open while the appeals were evaluated.

“It’s very unfortunate to me that the Archdiocese of Baltimore has taken this position,” Hale said, arguing that the archdiocese “deprived these good people of being able to celebrate Holy Week in their parish” and “deprived them of three months of parish life.”

Pivonski told CNA that St. Clare was “extremely active” prior to the closure. 

The parish is located in a high-poverty area, she said, and catered to the poor and homeless through frequent food donations. It was also working with pregnancy centers. 

A hearing on the matter was postponed due to Vatican departments shutting down after Pope Francis’ death. 

The case will be “presented to the Dicastery for Clergy as soon as it’s able to hear the matter,” Hale said.

Planned Parenthood gets millions of dollars in federal support each year. / Credit: Ken Wolter/Shutterstock

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, May 20, 2025 / 14:50 pm (CNA).

Two American Catholic bishops are hailing a Republican-led legislative effort to end certain taxpayer funds for abortion providers such as Planned Parenthood as well as an attempt to block funding for transgender drugs and surgeries for children.

Proposed budget language currently being considered in the U.S. House of Representatives would prevent Planned Parenthood and other abortion providers from receiving Medicaid reimbursements for any services. It would also end all reimbursements for transgender drugs or surgeries that doctors prescribe for children.

“Americans should not be forced to subsidize abortions and ‘gender transition’ services with their tax dollars,” Toledo, Ohio, Bishop Daniel Thomas and Bishop Robert Barron of Winona-Rochester, Minnesota, said in a joint statement on Monday from the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB).

Thomas is the chairman of the USCCB’s pro-life committee, while Barron chairs the Committee on Laity, Marriage, Family Life, and Youth.

Under current law, federal tax money cannot directly fund most abortions, but abortion clinics can still receive federal funding if the money is used in other ways. A Government Accountability Office report found that Planned Parenthood pulled in more than $1.75 billion in taxpayer funds in 2019 and 2021 from a variety of sources.

Planned Parenthood’s 2023-2024 annual report stated that the organization received nearly $800 million in taxpayer funding over a 12-month period, which accounted for almost 40% of its total revenue.

“For decades, Planned Parenthood has received government money and offered low-income women one terrible option: to end the lives of their babies,” Thomas and Barron said. 

“More recently, they have used the same taxpayer funds to expand their destructive offerings by promoting gender ideology and providing puberty blockers and hormones to minors, turning them into lifelong patients in the process.”

“Americans should not be forced to subsidize abortions and ‘gender transition’ services with their tax dollars, and we applaud measures that will finally help to defund Planned Parenthood,” they added.

“We encourage greater support for authentic, life-affirming health care providers that serve mothers and their children in need. We urge all members of Congress and the administration to work in good faith to protect vulnerable women and children from mutilating ‘gender transition’ services and the scourge of abortion.”

The proposed language is part of the so-called “One, Big, Beautiful Bill” that would set the nation’s budget and incorporate elements of President Donald Trump’s agenda. The legislation would only need a majority support in the House and the Senate.

The bill bypasses the usual 60-vote threshold needed in the Senate because certain budget bills only require a simple majority.

Although the bishops have voiced support for this part of the budget bill, they have criticized other proposed elements of the bill. Specifically, the USCCB opposes structural changes to Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), which the bishops worry could reduce access to the programs.

The proposed Medicaid reforms include work requirements for able-bodied adults under the age of 65 if they do not have young children as dependents and shifting some Medicaid costs to states if they offer benefits to immigrants who are in the country illegally.

Some of the proposed SNAP changes include shifting between 5% and 25% of the cost to states, raising the work requirement age from 54 to 64, and implementing stricter verifications to ensure money does not go to immigrants who are in the country illegally.

If the House passes its version of the bill, it will then go to the Senate, where lawmakers will likely make changes and send it back to the House. It is not yet scheduled for a vote in the House.

Missouri State Capitol in Jefferson City Missouri. / Credit: eurobanks/Shutterstock

St. Louis, Mo., May 20, 2025 / 12:32 pm (CNA).

Republican lawmakers in Missouri approved a new referendum last week that, if passed by voters, could reinstate many of the state’s pro-life laws, largely undoing a previous statewide referendum that expanded abortion rights a few months ago. 

The ballot measure, HJR73, would ask voters if they want to allow abortion only in the case of a medical emergency, fetal abnormality, or rape or incest. It also would ban public funding for any abortions not done because of medical emergency or rape or incest. 

In addition, the referendum would allow the state General Assembly to enact laws that regulate the provision of abortions, abortion facilities, and abortion providers to ensure the health and safety of pregnant mothers.

The measure would also constitutionally ban hormones, puberty blockers, and surgeries for “gender transition” for minors. Missouri already bans those procedures for minors, but that restriction, first passed in 2023, is set to expire in August 2027.

The measure is expected to appear before voters in November 2026, or sooner if Republican Gov. Mike Kehoe, who is Catholic, calls a special election. 

Missourians had last November narrowly voted to overturn the state’s near-ban on abortion and enshrine a provision guaranteeing “reproductive freedom” in the state constitution, coming into effect Dec. 6, 2024.

Missouri law had previously extended protection to unborn babies throughout all of pregnancy with the only exception being cases of “medical emergency.”

Although the 2024 amendment language mentions that laws could be passed to restrict abortion past the point of “fetal viability,” the amendment simultaneously prohibits any interference with an abortion that a doctor determines is necessary to “protect the life or physical or mental health” of the mother.

Missouri lawmakers had in recent years passed numerous laws designed to protect patients and limit the abortion industry’s influence, including 2017 regulations requiring that abortion doctors have surgical and admitting privileges to nearby hospitals; that abortion clinics must be licensed with the state; and that clinics must meet hospital-like standards for outpatient surgery.

Soon after the 2024 amendment took effect, Planned Parenthood filed a lawsuit challenging numerous pro-life protections in Missouri, including the state’s 72-hour waiting period for abortions; the state’s ban on abortions done specifically for reasons of the race, sex, or a Down syndrome diagnosis of the baby; the state’s ban on “telemedicine” abortions; and the state’s requirement that only licensed physicians may perform abortions.

The Missouri Catholic Conference (MCC), which advocates policy in the state on behalf of the state’s bishops, described the upcoming referendum as an “opportunity to add health and safety protections for mothers and their preborn children back into the state constitution.”

The MCC had previously expressed support for HJR73, urging support for “the effort to reduce abortions in the state of Missouri and to create a culture of life and compassion and limit the effects of Amendment 3.”

Missouri was one of the first states to fully ban abortion after the fall of Roe v. Wade in 2022. Following the 2024 vote, Missouri and six other states expanded legal protection for abortion, while voters in Florida, Nebraska, and South Dakota voted down major pro-abortion proposals the same night.

Bishop Thomas Paprocki of Springfield, Illinois. / Credit: Diocese of Springfield in Illinois

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, May 19, 2025 / 17:57 pm (CNA).

Bishop Thomas Paprocki, Bishop Kevin Rhoades, and Father Thomas Ferguson will join an advisory board for President Donald Trump’s Religious Liberty Commission, according to a statement from the White House.

The three Catholic clergymen will join San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore J. Cordileone on the Advisory Board of Religious Leaders for the commission. Two members of the Church hierarchy — Cardinal Timothy Dolan of the Archdiocese of New York and Bishop Robert Barron of the Diocese of Winona-Rochester, Minnesota — are serving on the commission itself.

Rhoades, the bishop of Fort Wayne-South Bend, Indiana, chairs the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Religious Liberty. Paprocki, the bishop of Springfield, Illinois, played a major role in the bishops’ “Fortnight for Freedom” religious liberty campaign during the 2010s, according to the White House. 

Neither Paprocki nor Rhoades could be reached for comment by the time of publication.

Ferguson, who is a parish priest at Good Shepherd Catholic Church in Alexandria, Virginia, also has a doctorate in government and authored “Catholic and American: The Political Theology of John Courtney Murray,” which focused on religious liberty and Catholicism in the United States.

“We’re looking forward … to the celebration of the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence next year,” Ferguson told CNA in an interview, saying he hopes the commission can assist in “pointing out … just how important religious communities like the Catholic Church are to our society.”

Ferguson said the inclusion of Catholic clergy on the commission “is extremely welcomed by our Church,” adding: “It really puts us all in a forum where we can do the important work of educating people.”

One element on which Ferguson hopes to focus is insurance mandates for services that “violate our conscience” on issues such as contraception, sterilization, and transgender drugs and surgeries: “All of these things that we would find morally objectionable, we must be vigilant [against].”

He said he is also concerned about “where this country is going in terms of in vitro fertilization [IVF]” and noted that there are some politicians who “refer to themselves of pro-life legislators [despite] being advocates for IVF.”

“You also need to be protective of human life … created through IVF,” Ferguson said, recalling the millions of human embryos destroyed through the IVF process.

Ferguson discussed a new law in Washington state that will lead to the arrest of priests if they do not report child abuse they learn about during the sacrament of reconciliation, which would violate the “absolute sense of secrecy [of a] … sacramental confession.”

“That’s an area,” he said, where “we can be very consistent in teaching, explaining and clarifying for people: ‘This is how we freely exercise our religion in terms of the First Amendment.’” 

The Religious Liberty Commission

In addition to the advisory board consisting of religious clergy, the White House also created an advisory board made up of legal experts and another of lay leaders. These boards will assist the commission in developing its final report.

The commission and its advisory boards include members of various religions, including Catholicism, Orthodoxy, Protestantism, Islam, and Judaism.

The report will outline the current threats to religious freedom in the United States and provide strategies on how to ensure legal protections when rights are under attack. It will also lay out the foundation of religious liberty in the United States and issue guidance on how to increase awareness of the historically peaceful religious pluralism within the country. 

Some of the commission’s key focus areas include conscience protections, free speech for religious bodies, institutional autonomy, attacks on houses of worship, parental rights in education, and school choice.

Trump established the commission on May 1 through an executive order, which coincided with the National Day of Prayer.