St. James the Less Catholic Parish

Washington state’s governor signed a law on May 1, 2025, that threatens priests with up to one year in jail if they fail to report child abuse they learn about during the sacrament of confession. / Credit: Romana Klee via Flickr

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, May 6, 2025 / 16:11 pm (CNA).

President Donald Trump's Department of Justice (DOJ) is investigating an “anti-Catholic law” in Washington state that threatens priests with up to one year in jail if they fail to report child abuse they learn about during the sacrament of confession.

The new law, signed by Gov. Bob Ferguson last week, adds members of the clergy to the list of mandatory reporters for child abuse. It specifically states that clergy must report abuse, even if it is learned of during “privileged communication.” All other mandatory reporters, such as nurses and therapists, are exempt from the reporting requirements when the information is obtained during “privileged communication.”

A priest who refuses to report information learned during confession could be sent to jail for up to 364 days and receive a fine of up to $5,000.

In a press release, the DOJ expressed that one of its primary concerns is that the law seems to single out priests and confession. The law exempts most privileged communication from the mandatory reporting law but denies that right to priests by including the phrase “except for members of the clergy.”

“The law appears to single out clergy as not entitled to assert applicable privileges, as compared to other reporting professionals,” the DOJ wrote. “We take this matter very seriously and look forward to Washington state’s cooperation with our investigation.”

Harmeet Dhillon, the assistant attorney general of the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division, sent a letter to the governor and called the mandate a “legislative attack on the Catholic Church and its sacrament of confession, a religious practice ordained by the Catholic Church dating back to the Church’s origins.”

“Not only does this new law put state authorities in direct conflict with the free exercise of a well-established religion, but your law demands that priests disobey one of the Catholic Church’s first authorities related to confession,” she wrote. “This state command runs afoul of the First Amendment.”

Dhillon cited Catholic canon law, which states that “it is absolutely forbidden for a confessor to betray in any way a penitent in words or in manner and for any reason.”

Bishops: ‘Confessions remain sacred, secure, confidential’

The Washington State Catholic Conference, which represents the state’s Catholic bishops, put out a statement to assure Catholics that “their confessions remain sacred, secure, confidential, and protected by the law of the Church.”

“Catholic clergy may not violate the seal of confession — or they will be excommunicated from the Church,” the statement, signed by Seattle Archbishop Paul D. Etienne, added.

The bishop noted that Church policy requires priests to report knowledge of child abuse to the police but “not if this information is obtained during confession.” He wrote that the bishops are committed to working with civil authorities in ways that do not impugn the seal of confession.

“The Catholic Church agrees with the goal of protecting children and preventing child abuse,” the statement added. “The Archdiocese of Seattle remains committed to reporting child sexual abuse, working with victim survivors towards healing, and protecting all minors and vulnerable people.”

However, Etienne wrote: “While we remain committed to protecting minors and all vulnerable people from abuse, priests cannot comply with this law if the knowledge of abuse is obtained during the sacrament of reconciliation.”

The bishop recalled the first reading from this past Sunday’s Mass, in which apostles were arrested and thrown in jail for preaching Christianity, and cites St. Peter’s remark to the Sanhedrin: “We must obey God rather than men.”

“This is our stance now in the face of this new law,” he wrote.

Eric Kniffin, a fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center (EPPC), told CNA that the new law “discriminates against religion on its face, which is really unusual.”

Kniffin told CNA that over the last three years, he has “warned the Washington Legislature that a law that invades the clergy-penitent privilege would be challenged and found unconstitutional.”

“I am confident that there will be litigation over this and that the law will be struck down,” he said.

He noted that the DOJ investigation “does not commit the government to a particular course of action,” but added: “I am encouraged that the DOJ is concerned about this law, and I believe the United States will look for opportunities to come alongside the religious plaintiffs in litigation.”

Kniffin praised Washington state’s bishops for publicly committing to safeguard the seal of confession but also warned that “it’s hard for bishops to reassure Catholics when the law is asserting the right to force priests to break their vows.”

“It is reasonable for the bishops to fear that the law could affect whether someone goes to confession or what they say in confession,” he said.

“This law casts a cloud of doubt over the confessional,” he continued, “and that fear of government discourages people from exercising their First Amendment rights.”

New York state capitol in Albany. / Credit: Nina Alizada/Shutterstock

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, May 6, 2025 / 15:41 pm (CNA).

Cardinal Timothy Dolan this week called New York legislation aiming to legalize medical assisted suicide “a disaster waiting to happen” after the state Assembly advanced the measure last week.

In a statement released on Tuesday, Dolan — the archbishop of the Archdiocese of New York — said: “For people of faith who believe in the sanctity of life from conception to natural death, the very idea of having a doctor give you a prescription to end your life prematurely is contrary to everything we cherish.”

“But one need not be religious to see that assisted suicide is a terrible idea. It is a classic Pandora’s box; once opened, its consequences cannot be contained.”

The New York State Assembly passed the Medical Aid in Dying Act in New York on April 29 in an 81–67 vote. If passed into law, the legislation will allow terminally ill adults to request medication to end their own lives.

Dolan on Tuesday reflected on the last weeks of Pope Francis’ life and how he was “not afraid to let us watch him die, much like his beloved predecessor, Pope St. John Paul II.” 

“Both men knew that our worth is based on who we are as children of God, not on what we can do,” the archbishop wrote.

Dolan highlighted that the New York bill lacks safety guidelines, arguing that the medication can be prescribed by any kind of doctor and the meeting to request the medication is not required to be held in person. 

Patients also do not have to be asked if they have ever contemplated suicide or been treated for any mental health conditions.

“How is this compassion?” Dolan said on Tuesday, arguing that the measure forces doctors “to lie on death certificates by claiming the cause of death was the person’s underlying illness and not what actually killed him or her — the lethal combination of drugs.”

He explained the bill follows successful work by New York Gov. Kathy Hochul to bring suicide rates in New York down. Hochul spearheaded initiatives to help schools, hospitals, first responders, and veterans and a hotline during a “mental health crisis.”

Dolan said he commended her “highly successful suicide prevention efforts.” 

“But,” he continued, “a new law that sanctions suicide while the state simultaneously pursues a policy of suicide prevention amounts to cutting holes into one side of a boat while bailing water from the other.”

Dolan pointed to the Catholic Church’s “long and proud history in health care.”

“We opened America’s first hospitals. We’ve cared for the casualties of war, measles, homelessness, illness, violence, AIDS, and all diseases and ailments known to man. We’ve also cared for our fellow humans’ emotional, psychological, and spiritual ailments.”

“State-sanctioned suicide turns everything society knows and believes about medicine on its head,” Dolan said. “Doctors go from healers to killers.”

Meanwhile, “what is proposed as compassion for the suffering terminally ill” becomes “a duty, as the elderly, the disabled, and the sick feel pressured to end their lives and stop being an inconvenience to others.”

“All stages of life provide lessons — to ourselves and others — but perhaps none more so than life’s end, as Pope Francis so eloquently taught,” the cardinal said.

Dolan noted that Pope Francis called assisted suicide the “discarding of the patient” and “false compassion.” 

“New York and all our states can do better than this,” Dolan said. 

“Let us instead focus our formidable efforts on strengthening care for people at the end of life. They are finishing the race. Let them go with their hands held high, the way God and nature intended,” the prelate said.

Winona-Rochester, Minnesota, Bishop Robert Barron speaks to EWTN News Vatican Correspondent Colm Flynn in Rome on Monday, May 5, 2025. / Credit: EWTN News

CNA Staff, May 6, 2025 / 10:27 am (CNA).

Bishop Robert Barron of Winona-Rochester, Minnesota, this week said the next pope should be a disciple of Christ first and foremost, one who places “the declaration of Jesus” at the center of his papacy. 

Barron spoke to EWTN News Vatican Correspondent Colm Flynn on May 5 in Rome. The U.S. prelate noted that the Church is on “pins and needles” during the interregnum before the election of the next pope, though he admitted it’s “an exciting time.”

Asked by Flynn about the commentary that has proliferated around the papacy since Pope Francis’ death on April 21, Barron said the “politicization” of the papal selection process reflects a “lack of proper prioritization.” 

The bishop pointed to Australian priest and theologian Father Gerald Glynn O’Collins, SJ, who when  asked what he was looking for in the next pope after John Paul II’s death, responded, as Barron put it: “I want someone who declares the resurrection of Jesus in a compelling way.”

“Because that was Peter’s job,” Barron said, “and this is the successor of Peter. I think to put the stress on the spiritual, on the evangelical, on the declaration of Jesus — that’s what matters.” 

The prelate admitted that there are “further implications” to a pope’s job. He told Flynn that there are “political strategies” that help advance the “moral principles” espoused by the Church.

“[T]he preoccupation with — oh, is he left-wing? Is he right-wing? Climate change, immigration — OK, we can get to all that,” Barron said. 

“But the first thing I’d look for is a disciple, a believer in Jesus, and who has the capacity to proclaim the Resurrection in a compelling way,” he said. “That’s the pope’s job, [and] to be a source of unity for the Church.”

The politicization of the papacy is “seeing [the role] through a relentlessly secular political lens,” Barron said. “And you know, again, I get it. But I’m annoyed at the way it gets the priorities off.” 

Asked about the cardinals who are considered top contenders for the papal election this week, Barron pointed out that, during the last conclave, “nobody” suspected then-Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio would become Pope Francis. 

“I always put that forward as a caution whenever we’re talking about candidates,” the bishop said. “There is certainly a good chance it won’t be any of these people.”

A woman pays tribute to victims of the 2019 Easter Sunday terror attacks at a cemetery in Negombo, Sri Lanka, on April 21, 2022, marking three years since the tragic attacks. / Credit: Ruwan Walpola/Shutterstock

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, May 6, 2025 / 07:00 am (CNA).

The archbishop of Colombo, Sri Lanka, announced this week that the 167 Catholics killed in the Sri Lanka Easter Sunday bombings in 2019 will be included on the list of “Witnesses of Faith” established by Pope Francis.

Inspired by an apostolic letter by Pope John Paul II, who wanted to ensure the legacy of the “unknown soldiers of God’s great cause” was not lost, Pope Francis created the Commission of the New Martyrs - Witnesses of the Faith in 2023. Francis sought to acknowledge Catholics who have lost their lives while professing their faith in the first quarter of the 21st century. Compiled by the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints in preparation for the 2025 Jubilee Year, the list is an ongoing catalogue of Christian martyrs who, the Holy Father said, “are witnesses of the hope that comes from faith in Christ.”

On April 21, 2019, terrorists bombed two Catholic churches, St. Sebastian’s and St. Anthony’s; an evangelical church; three hotels; and a private residence in Sri Lanka, killing more than 260 people.

Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith, who has been the archbishop of Colombo since 2009, said that Cardinal Marcello Semeraro, prefect of the Vatican’s Dicastery for the Causes of Saints, has included the names of the 167 Catholics who died on the Witnesses of the Faith list, “considering the context of their heroism.”

Ranjith said they are being included to “honor their sacrifice.” 

This past weekend, St. Anthony Church in Colombo held a vigil to honor the lives lost during the fatal bombings. Hundreds of people, including Christian, Buddhist, Hindu, and Islamic religious leaders, attended the gathering.

Following his attendance at the vigil, Ranjith traveled to the Vatican to take part in the conclave.

Six years after the attacks, Ranjith and the Catholic Church in Sri Lanka are still demanding further investigations into the bomings to examine potential involvement of state officials.

A member of the Papal Foundation greets Pope Francis with a personalized New Orleans Saints jersey, Friday, April 12, 2024. / Credit: Vatican Media

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, May 5, 2025 / 20:11 pm (CNA).

Following the death of Pope Francis last month, the Papal Foundation’s annual distribution of humanitarian aid will be in memory of the Holy Father’s legacy, the organization said in a press release. 

This year, the Papal Foundation — a nonprofit dedicated to serving the Holy Father’s wishes through donations to charitable initiatives of his choosing around the world — will channel $14 million in funding toward 116 projects across more than 60 countries. Projects include developing access to clean drinking water and housing, providing educational resources, restoring churches and seminaries, and constructing health care facilities in war-torn and impoverished areas. 

Customarily, representatives for the organization travel to Rome on the Friday after Divine Mercy Sunday to deliver the funding via check to the Holy Father, the president of the foundation’s board of trustees, Ward Fitzgerald, told CNA. This year, because their meeting was set to take place exactly one week after Pope Francis’ passing, they attended his funeral instead.

Fitzgerald said this year felt especially significant. “With [Pope Francis’] passing, we have a chance to be a voice for the poor — something he so powerfully embodied,” he said.

The average grant, according to Fitzgerald, is somewhere between $100,000 and $150,000. 

“We give them to schools, we give them to hospitals, we give them also to programs to help child trafficking issues or drug smuggling using children and abandoned children. We also are doing humanitarian aid relative to refugee situations and war situations in some of the poorest countries with some of the poorest people,” he said, noting that a portion of the grants often also go to clergy or religious communities whose buildings are in need of repair.

“It is well documented that [Francis] was a very loving, caring … sensitive Holy Father, and he had a heart for the poor,” Fitzgerald reflected. “He implored the laity to try to grow in their hearts to be more Christ-like, and specifically in their show of care for the poor. I think that that’s a big part of his papacy.”

“As we are all in anticipation of the next Holy Father,” he continued, “we don’t get to be Peter, but we can all be Paul … and hopefully, we are spreading the Gospel as well as spreading charity and caring for the poor around the globe as the early apostles and disciples did.” 

Grants have grown in steady increments for the past 20 years, Fitzgerald said. Since its inception in 1988, the Papal Foundation has distributed more than $250 million to over 2,800 projects designated by Pope Francis, Benedict XVI, and St. John Paul II. 

The foundation also announced this week its election of Cardinal Timothy Dolan, archbishop of New York, as chairman, and Edward Fitzgerald III, CEO and founder of the Catholic private equity firm ExCorde Capital, as president of its board of trustees. 

“The Gospel of Matthew teaches us: ‘Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me,’” Dolan stated in a press release on Monday. “In a world where the distance between wealth and need continues to widen, the Stewards of St. Peter of the Papal Foundation take seriously their responsibility to serve the poor and vulnerable with compassion and faith.”

President Donald Trump speaks during an event in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, D.C., on May 5, 2025. / Credit: JIM WATSON/AFP via Getty Images

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, May 5, 2025 / 14:57 pm (CNA).

President Donald Trump dismissed the criticism he faced after sharing an AI-generated image of himself as the pope on social media, asserting that the controversy was drummed up by the news media.

“You mean they can’t take a joke?” Trump rhetorically asked a reporter after he was questioned about backlash to the image. “You don’t mean the Catholics; you mean the fake news media.”

Trump said “the Catholics loved it” and noted that his wife, Melania, who is Catholic, “thought it was cute” before commenting that — if he were the pope — “I would not be able to be married though.”

“To the best of my knowledge, popes aren’t big on getting married, are they?” he said. “Not that we know of.”

Trump, who shared the image on Truth Social, said he “had nothing to do with” the picture, adding: “Somebody made up a picture of me dressed like the pope and they put it out on the internet.”

“That’s not me who did it,” the president continued. “I have no idea where it came from. Maybe it was AI, but I know nothing about it. I just saw it last evening.”

Trump, who frequently shares memes of himself on social media, posted the image to Truth Social on Friday after joking that he would like to be chosen as the next pope. The White House subsequently posted the photo on its official X account.

The social media posts came just days after the president said he would “like to be pope” when a reporter asked him who he hopes is selected in the upcoming papal conclave.  As part of his response to that same question, he went on to say he actually had “no preference” while also touting Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York as a “very good” candidate.

Responses from Catholic bishops

Trump’s latest joke about the matter received pushback from some Catholic leaders, including Dolan, Bishop Robert Barron, Bishop Thomas Paprocki, and the entire New York Catholic Conference. As of the time of publication, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) had not issued a statement nor responded to a request for comment from CNA.

Dolan, the archbishop of New York City and an appointee to Trump’s recently created Religious Liberty Commission, told a reporter in Rome that he hopes the president “had nothing to do with that” and said “it wasn’t good.”

Speaking in Italian, Dolan called the stunt “brutta figura,” essentially meaning that it was in bad form.

Barron, the bishop of Winona–Rochester, Minnesota, who was also appointed to the Religious Liberty Commission, told EWTN News that he thinks it was “a bad joke” and a “sophomoric attempt at humor.” 

“I don’t think at all it represents some disdain for the Catholic Church or some attack on the Catholic Church,” he said. “President Trump has signaled in all sorts of ways his support for and affection for the Catholic Church. I think it was a bad joke that obviously landed very poorly and was seen as offensive by a lot of Catholics and I wish he hadn’t done it.”

Milwaukee Archbishop Jeffrey S. Grob told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that the conclave is “a very serious time” for the Catholic Church and expressed displeasure that “we’ve lost great respect for moments like this.”

Some Catholic leaders who criticized the president took stronger offense to the image.

The New York State Catholic Conference, which represents the state’s bishops, posted on X that “there is nothing clever or funny about this image, Mr. President.”

“We just buried our beloved Pope Francis and the cardinals are about to enter a solemn conclave to elect a new successor of St. Peter,” the post added. “Do not mock us.”

Paprocki, who is the bishop of Springfield, Illinois, said on X that the photo “mocks God, the Catholic Church, and the papacy.”

“This is deeply offensive to Catholics especially during this sacred time that we are still mourning the death of Pope Francis and praying for the guidance of the Holy Spirit for the election of our new pope,” Paprocki wrote. “He owes an apology.”

Other Catholic figures did not take such offense, however.

Vice President JD Vance, who is a convert to Catholicism, responded to criticisms of the image from commentator and writer Bill Kristol, who is not Catholic.

“As a general rule,” wrote Vance, “I’m fine with people telling jokes and not fine with people starting stupid wars that kill thousands of my countrymen,” referring to Kristol’s role in support of the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq.

In a news release, Bill Donohue, the president of the Catholic League, called the image “dumb, but not bigoted.”

“What Trump did was silly, but it was hardly an expression of bigotry,” Donohue said. “We deal with real cases of anti-Catholicism at the Catholic League, not junior-league pranks.”

CatholicVote’s vice president Joshua Mercer — whose organization ran advertisements for Trump in the last election — said in a statement that the image is “obviously intended to be humorous.”

“There is no need to imagine that he believes he could be pope, or that he intended to mock the papacy,” Mercer said. “Memes depicting famous people as the new pope have been playfully circulating on social media everywhere for the past week.”

Brian Burch, the president of CatholicVote and Trump’s nominee as the ambassador to the Holy See, declined to comment. 

This story was updated May 5, 2025, at 5:14 p.m. ET with Trump’s comments on the image.

null / Credit: BAUER Alexandre/Shutterstock

CNA Staff, May 4, 2025 / 07:00 am (CNA).

Dr. Christopher Stroud was a Catholic OB-GYN who prescribed birth control and gave referrals for in vitro fertilization (IVF) until a priest admonished him in the sacrament of reconciliation. Now Stroud runs a life-affirming fertility clinic that uses Natural Procreative Technology — a treatment model that embraces life-affirming Catholic ethics.

“It changed my life,” Stroud said of the confession. “Probably for all eternity, it changed my life.”

Stroud said he still “get[s] emotional” just talking about the impact of the clinic. Couples send him photos of their babies — it has grown into a wall of photos now.

Since his change of heart in 2012, his practice has “just exploded.” The clinic has grown so popular that there’s a six-month wait period.

“We are blessed with a busy, busy practice,” he told CNA.

While Stroud’s clinic is based in Fort Wayne, Indiana, he received his training in Nebraska at St. Paul VI Institute — an organization founded in 1985 that trains doctors in “NaProTechnology.”

And the demand for NaProTechnology? It’s “unlimited,” Stroud said.

What makes NaPro different? 

NaProTechnology is “a problem-based approach to fertility challenges,” Stroud explained.

The model is “a recognition, more than anything, that infertility is a symptom — it’s not a diagnosis,” Stroud explained.

Rather than jumping to IVF — which is often expensive, arduous, and carries ethical issues with the creation of unused embryos — NaProTechnology applies basic principals of contemporary medicine to fertility treatment.

“Everywhere else in contemporary medicine, we use symptoms to point to a disease state, and then we treat the disease state; then we ask, did the symptom go away?” Stroud said.

But with the advent of IVF in the late 1970s, doctors were taught to promptly refer clients for IVF, Stroud explained.

NaProTechnology is highly effective, Stroud has found. Fertility specialists can address the underlying health issues preventing conception “more times than not,” he said.

Teresa Hilgers, an OB-GYN at the St. Paul VI Institute, added that NaProTechnology often brings a couple’s fertility “back to life.” She said she has seen “so many” couples who, with the help of NaProTechnology, “no longer need medical support to achieve future pregnancies.”

Talking about IVF 

Stroud emphasized that while IVF is against Church teaching, IVF is a challenging issue to talk about. It’s important to acknowledge that the children created through IVF are created in God’s image, Stroud said.

“Any time we have a chance to say [it], we must say that the children created by IVF are children of God — created in his image and likeness,” Stroud said.

“We’ve got to remember that as Catholics, we’re not condemning, we’re educating,” Stroud continued. “And the people that we’re talking to often are very, very wounded and vulnerable.”

When discussing IVF, Stroud noted that “we’ve got to remember the vulnerable, horrible pain that couples are experiencing.”

“I can’t think of another marital stress that could ever hold a candle to infertility because it forces couples to question what it means to be man and woman, what it means to be married, what it means to be intimate,” Stroud said.

“But children are a gift. They’re not a right,” Stroud said. “If they were a right, they’d be property, which is part of the problem with IVF — they do become property.”

The Catholic perspective

IVF is contrary to the Catholic Church’s teaching. But why?

There are several layers to understanding the Church’s teaching on IVF. Most obviously, there’s the high cost of life in IVF.

“IVF is very destructive,” Hilgers said. “Many babies are lost to create one new life.”

The remaining human embryos conceived via IVF often remain in frozen storage for an indeterminate amount of time — often never to grow up.

“[Couples] may have finished their fertility journey, but they do not know what to do with their remaining frozen embryos,” Hilgers said.

IVF also contradicts the Church’s understanding of the purpose of sexual intercourse within the union of marriage.

“The Church teaches that the act of sexual intercourse has two aspects: procreative and unitive. These are inseparable,” Hilgers said. “IVF separates the procreative and unitive acts of intercourse between a married couple.”

The Catechism of the Catholic Church (No. 2377) states that IVF is “morally unacceptable” because it separates the marriage act from procreation and establishes “the domination of technology” over human life.

But there’s also a biological and medical argument against IVF, both Hilgers and Stroud noted.

“Many do not realize that IVF is not good medicine,” Hilgers said.

“The success rates are lower than most think,” she said. “A lot of couples go through IVF and fail.”

IVF can bring with it additional risks, including higher complication rates with pregnancy, higher preterm labor, and even higher risk for birth defects, Hilgers added. 

When Stroud meets with patients who are considering IVF, he begins by asking them: “Why?” 

“The thing that I say to the couple is: Wouldn’t you like to know why you’re not getting pregnant — even if it means you’re never going to be pregnant — wouldn’t you like to know?” he said. “I’ve never had a couple say, ‘Actually, no, we don’t care.’” 

For couples with infertility

Both Hilgers and Stroud emphasized that IVF is far from the only option for couples struggling with infertility.

When asked what he would say to couples struggling with infertility, Stroud said: “Don’t settle.” 

“You don’t have to settle as a couple, and you don’t have to choose between the tenets of your faith and your fertility,” Stroud said. “Unexplained infertility is, more times than not, uninvestigated infertility.”

“Many couples who undergo IVF are never given a diagnosis for why they have infertility,” Hilgers added. “They are often told that their infertility is ‘unexplained.’”

But “their infertility is unexplained because a proper evaluation was never done,” Hilgers said.

When asked about the impact of NaProTechnology on families, Hilgers said that by respecting Church teaching on love and life, the human dignity of all involved is also respected.

“When these teachings are respected, then the dignity of everyone involved, the woman, her husband, and children are respected,” she said.

null / Credit: PUWADON SANG/Shutterstock

Seattle, Wash., May 3, 2025 / 16:00 pm (CNA).

Texas on Saturday officially enacted one of the largest school choice programs in its history, with Gov. Greg Abbott signing the measure into law on Saturday afternoon as Catholic educators turn their attention to the ground-level work of growth and planning amid the new choice regime. 

The program’s $1 billion education savings account (ESA) program has led many to expect a noticeable shift in how — and for whom — Catholic education becomes financially accessible.

Catholic schools across the state are beginning to prepare for what may be a surge in applications. “Our Catholic schools in Texas are actively working to ensure capacity to add about 20,000 students when the ESA program opens in the 2026–2027 school year,” Jennifer Allmon, the executive director of the Texas Catholic Conference of Bishops, told CNA.

Under the new law, qualifying families will receive up to $10,000 per student to cover educational expenses such as private school tuition, transportation, and other services. 

Initially, the program will serve up to 90,000 students with potential for expansion. It also prioritizes low-income students and those with disabilities, two groups Catholic schools already serve extensively.

At Frassati Catholic High School in north Houston, where enrollment has grown significantly in recent years, Director of Enrollment Tim Lienhard sees this moment as a test of both the school’s mission and its infrastructure.

“We really are looking at this as a way to test what we’ve built,” Lienhard said. “We’re the only Catholic high school supporting families north of Houston’s Beltway 8, and we’ve already been growing steadily.”

Frassati opened in 2013 and expects its ninth graduating class this spring. Over the last four years, the school has refined its admissions process to focus on applicants who are genuinely seeking a Catholic environment. Lienhard emphasized that any future expansion won’t be for scale alone.

“We’ve developed a selection process based on our mission,” he said. “That means evaluating prospective students and families on their desire for our culture and identity. Growth only works if it flows from that.”

For the Texas bishops, Senate Bill 2 is the result of long-standing advocacy. Allmon, who has served the conference for two decades, described the new law as a breakthrough.

“This is a historic development,” she said. “All of the bishops of Texas are excited and ready to welcome new students and for some of our current students to get some financial relief with ESA.”

There are 66 Catholic high schools serving approximately 24,000 students in Texas. The average tuition is about $14,000, pricing out many working families. The ESA program could change that for a large segment of the population.

“We believe that parents who previously did not think they could afford Catholic school will be excited to have this option available,” Allmon said.

From a national perspective, the legislation is being hailed as a significant milestone.

“This is a historic victory for Texas families and the future of our nation. Revitalizing the Republic starts in the classroom,” Kevin Roberts, president of the Heritage Foundation, said this week.

“Texas has created the largest Day 1 school choice program in the nation. ... This policy change isn’t just a win for Texas — it’s a win for every student, every parent, and every taxpayer who believes in the principle that education should be about serving the needs of kids, not entrenched systems,” Roberts said.

Not every element of the law was welcomed by Catholic leaders. A provision in the bill excludes undocumented students from participating in the ESA program — something the bishops oppose.

“We welcome students in our Catholic schools, regardless of immigration status, out of respect for the rights and dignity given by our Creator to each human person,” Allmon said. “While we may oppose such decisions, we still support the underlying public benefit programs.”

State lawmakers passed House Bill 2 alongside SB 2, boosting overall public school funding.

“HB 2 provides an increase in funding for public schools targeted toward special-needs programs, teacher pay raises, fine arts, and gifted and talented programs,” she explained. 

Critics, however, contend that the program will divert funds from public schools and primarily benefit families already able to afford private education. But “with more than $80 billion going to public education, it’s hard to see how a $1 billion ESA program serving about 80,000 students would do harm,” Allmon said.

Ryan Walker, the executive vice president of Heritage Action for America, called the bill part of a broader national shift.

“For too long, our education system has failed families across the country… Today, we are witnessing a wave of states adopting school choice policies, handing authority back to parents and increasing opportunities for students.”

Lindsey Burke and Jason Bedrick of Heritage Foundation’s Center for Education Policy said this was more than a milestone. 

“It’s a tipping point. America is rapidly moving away from the district school model and toward an education system that empowers families to choose the learning environments that align with their values and work best for their children.”

For Lienhard, who oversees enrollment, marketing, and communications at Frassati, the conversations with families are ongoing — but still marked by uncertainty.

“Most families don’t yet know what they’ll qualify for,” he said. “There’s not a lot of clarity about how this will work, so people are waiting to see what the rollout looks like.”

Despite that ambiguity, there’s no lack of optimism at Frassati. The school is in the midst of a capital campaign to build a 20,000-square-foot academic facility. Its growth has been steady, and Lienhard attributes that not to programs or prestige but to something deeper.

“Our No. 1 asset is our Catholic identity,” he said. “We’re not growing just to grow. We’re trying to serve a community that is hungry for something real.”

He described the school’s efforts to balance mission and access as part of a longer-term vision. “We want to be a 100-year-old school,” he said. “That means building now for the families that are going to come later.”

As the law takes effect and the state prepares to implement the ESA program, many Catholic schools are watching closely. The policy may be new, but the core question for institutions like Frassati is one they’ve asked all along: how to remain faithful to mission while welcoming more families into the life of the Church.

“If this legislation helps more Catholic families access Catholic education, then we’ll be able to evangelize more boldly,” Lienhard said. “And that’s something we’re ready for.”

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. / Credit: AS photo studio/Shutterstock

CNA Staff, 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.