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U.S. bishops’ conference lays off 50 amid migrant funding ‘uncertainty’
Posted on 02/8/2025 02:55 AM (CNA Daily News - US)

Washington D.C., Feb 7, 2025 / 21:55 pm (CNA).
The U.S. Catholic bishops’ conference laid off 50 staff members in its migration and refugee services office Friday, citing a delay in reimbursements from the federal government.
U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ spokesperson Chieko Noguchi, in a statement shared with CNA, said the job cuts were due to “continuing uncertainty regarding refugee resettlement and the overall future of those programs.”
“Please pray for these dedicated men and women who have given so much of themselves in service to their sisters and brothers in need,” Noguchi said.
The layoffs, first reported by The Pillar website Friday night, mark an escalation of a deepening political and financial crisis for the USCCB and its affiliated charitable agencies, whose decades-long role providing essential services for migrants and refugees largely paid with federal funds has come under scrutiny from President Donald Trump’s administration.
The USCCB directs the bulk of the more than $100 million in federal grants it receives annually to affiliate organizations that provide migration and refugee services such as Catholic Charities.
A large portion of funding comes from grants through the federal U.S. Refugee Admissions Program (USRAP) to help resettle refugees who have been vetted by the federal government.
According to the USCCB’s audited financial statements, federal funding covered more than 95% of what the conference spent on refugee and migrant programs in recent years. The USCCB has spent slightly more on these services than what is covered by federal funding, according to the financial statements.
In 2023, the most recent year reported, the USCCB spent more than $134.2 million on these services with federal grants covering more than $129.6 million of the spending. In 2022, the USCCB spent nearly $127.4 million after getting nearly $123 million from the government.
According to the USCCB Committee on Migration, the Catholic refugee resettlement network includes more than 65 affiliate offices throughout the United States. The bishops self-report that the USCCB and its Migration and Refugee Services help resettle about 18% of refugees who enter the country every year.
The Pillar reported Friday night that a memo announcing the staff cuts was emailed to U.S. bishops by USCCB General Secretary Father Michael Fuller on Feb. 7.
The memo followed White House directives to freeze federal grants and loans to nongovernmental organizations, and statements by Vice President JD Vance criticizing the USCCB for receiving federal money to help “resettle illegal immigrants.”
Fuller informed the bishops in the memo that “to the best of my knowledge” no resettlement agencies or other nongovernmental agencies, including Catholic Relief Services, had received reimbursement from the federal government for their services since Trump took office on Jan. 20, The Pillar reported.
On its website, Catholic Relief Services, which provides aid to the poor and other people in need in more than 100 countries, is urging its supporters to contact their representatives in Congress to let them know that they are “deeply concerned about the administration’s recent decision to stop work on almost all U.S. foreign assistance programs.”
Super Bowl teams’ bishops renew rivalry with public wager
Posted on 02/8/2025 02:05 AM (CNA Daily News - US)

CNA Newsroom, Feb 7, 2025 / 21:05 pm (CNA).
On Super Bowl Sunday, players for the Kansas City Chiefs and Philadelphia Eagles are vying for a championship, a ring, money ($178,000 for winners versus $103,000 for losers), and a lifetime achievement.
The Catholic bishops of their respective dioceses have more modest things at stake: food, a $500 donation, and bragging rights.
Even so, the bishops are talking some clerical smack over their purportedly friendly wager.
It’s a rematch for Kansas City Bishop James Johnston and Philadelphia Archbishop Nelson Pérez, whose city’s teams played each other in the big game two years ago. (Kansas City won, 38-35, the first of two Super Bowl victories in a row. Philadelphia won the title in 2017, its only championship in the Super Bowl era.)
For years, the bishops of dioceses whose teams make it to the Super Bowl have been placing a public bet on the outcome. This year, if the Eagles win, Johnston is supposed to provide Jack Stack barbecue (famous in the Kansas City area) for Pérez. If the Chiefs win, Pérez will provide Philadelphia cheesesteak for Johnston.
Each bishop is also promising a $500 contribution to the other diocese’s Catholic Charities if his team loses.
The two bishops made a joint Feb. 7 appearance on “EWTN News In Depth.”
Johnston, whose Chiefs are looking for an unprecedented third Super Bowl victory in a row, expressed confidence in coach Andy Reid and quarterback Patrick Mahomes.
Pérez sounded hungrier, though, in support of the Eagles, affectionately called “the Birds” by their loyal fans.
“Well, I think the bishop and his Chiefs … are in for it. Because the Birds are hunting,” Pérez said.
Pérez made two things clear during the interview:
1. He’s totally confident the Eagles will win.
2. He wants the benefit of a point spread.
“Bishop Johnston, the bishops that I’m in retreat with asked me to ask you for two points since we’re the underdog,” Pérez said.
(In such a case, if the Chiefs won by one point, Pérez would still win the bet. If the Chiefs won by two points, it would be what’s known as a “push,” and neither side would win. The Chiefs would have to win by three or more for Johnston to collect.)
Johnston was having none of the retreat bishops’ suggestion.
“You tell them to go back to their prayer,” Johnston said.
Neither bishop can claim as much team spirit as Bishop Michael Burbidge, a Philadelphia native who had an Eagles emblem put into stained glass during a recent renovation of the Cathedral of St. Thomas More in his Diocese of Arlington, Virginia.
Even so, the rival dioceses on Sunday have heavy-duty patron saints, as the bishops pointed out. Philadelphia has St. John Neumann (the fourth bishop of the city) and St. Katharine Drexel (a native of the city).
Johnston’s see is called the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph, making for an obvious go-to saint.
“So we’re going to rely on good old St. Joseph, who’s the patron of the universal Church. So I think we’ve got him outnumbered there, with St. Joseph,” Johnston said.
The program’s host, EWTN News President and COO Montse Alvarado, pointed out that Chiefs placekicker Harrison Butker is known for publicly expressing his Catholic faith, and she asked Johnston: “Do you think evangelizing in the end zone can bring fans to Christ?”
“Well, I’m really encouraged by the faith of so many of the players, and not just on the field, but even afterwards in interviews, how many of them speak about their faith,” Johnston replied. “And so I think it’s a great witness of, you know, not covering your lampstand, but putting it out to where it can give light.”
Next National Eucharistic Congress will be held in 2029
Posted on 02/7/2025 23:40 PM (CNA Daily News - US)

CNA Staff, Feb 7, 2025 / 18:40 pm (CNA).
The next National Eucharistic Congress will be held in 2029, CNA confirmed today.
“The National Eucharistic Congress, Inc. is thrilled to share that we have begun the initial steps in preparing for the 11th National Eucharistic Congress, in 2029,” said Jason Shanks, CEO of the National Eucharistic Congress, in an email to CNA.
“We look forward to reuniting as an American Church to celebrate our shared Eucharistic faith.”
The next iteration of the National Eucharistic Congress had last year been tentatively announced to take place in 2033, the “Year of Redemption” marking 2,000 years since Jesus’ crucifixion.
The location for the major Catholic event has not been shared, and Shanks said organizers will “provide more details about the 11th National Eucharistic Congress in the future.”
The news about the date was first reported by The Pillar on Friday.
Last July’s National Eucharistic Congress, the first such event to take place on American soil since World War II, attracted tens of thousands of people for several massive sessions of Eucharistic adoration in Indianapolis’ Lucas Oil Stadium, numerous talks and workshops related to the Catholic faith, and a 60,000-participant Eucharistic procession through downtown Indianapolis.
Shanks said they are “eager to build on the grace we received during our gathering in Indianapolis this past summer.”
“We recognize that the success of the previous congress can be attributed to the countless individuals who prayed and interceded for the event. So, we invite the Church to join us in praying not only for the planning of this future congress but that we might continue to Walk with One through this year of missionary sending.”
The 2024 Congress was a major part of the National Eucharistic Revival, an ongoing initiative of the U.S. bishops that calls Catholics to share their rekindled love of the Eucharist, the body and blood of Jesus.
This is a developing story.
Justice Department ends lawsuit against Tennessee law banning transgender surgeries
Posted on 02/7/2025 23:00 PM (CNA Daily News - US)

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Feb 7, 2025 / 18:00 pm (CNA).
President Donald Trump’s administration ended the U.S. Department of Justice’s (DOJ) support for a lawsuit that challenges the legality of a Tennessee law that prohibits doctors from performing transgender surgeries on minors and giving them transgender drugs.
In a letter written to the clerk of the United States Supreme Court, Deputy Solicitor General Curtis E. Gannon said the DOJ is no longer challenging the law. However, he asked that the court still issue a ruling on the matter because it will set precedent for the lower courts to follow.
Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee signed the bill to prevent transgender procedures from being performed on minors in March 2023, which subsequently faced legal challenges from some residents in the state and President Joe Biden’s DOJ. The Supreme Court agreed to hear the case in October of last year and has already heard oral arguments.
Residents — represented by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), Lambda Legal, and Akin Gump — and Biden’s DOJ argued that the law violates the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment. Those lawyers made the case during oral arguments that a blanket prohibition on those procedures for minors constitutes a form of “sex” discrimination.
Lawyers representing Tennessee argued that the law is a simple health and safety regulation that protects all minors from risky procedures and does not discriminate on the basis of sex.
In the letter to the court, Gannon said Trump’s DOJ does not believe the law violates the Constitution.
“Following the change in administration, the [DOJ] has reconsidered the United States’ position in this case,” Gannon said. “The purpose of this letter is to notify the court that the government’s previously stated views no longer represent the United States’ position.”
The letter states that the new administration “would not have intervened to challenge” the law.
Gannon wrote, however, that the DOJ is not “seeking to dismiss its case,” adding: “The court’s prompt resolution of the question presented will bear on many cases pending in the lower courts.”
Because the DOJ will no longer argue against the law, Gannon urged the Supreme Court to continue the case with the private plaintiffs.
The ACLU, the ACLU of Tennessee, Lambda Legal, and Akin Gump issued a joint statement criticizing the administration’s decision, saying the “discriminatory and baseless ban continues to upend the lives of our plaintiffs — transgender adolescents, their families, and a medical provider.”
“These Tennesseans have had their constitutional right to equal protection under the law violated by the state of Tennessee,” the statement read. “This latest move from the Trump administration is another indication that they are using the power of the federal government to target marginalized groups for further discrimination.”
In the first few weeks of Trump’s second presidency, the president has taken several actions to curtail the imposition of gender ideology in the United States, including an executive order that affirms there are two genders determined by biological characteristics, an executive order that bans transgender drugs and surgeries for minors, and an executive order to keep men out of women’s sports.
U.S. bishops: Human trafficking is ‘rejection of the God-given dignity of every human being’
Posted on 02/7/2025 22:30 PM (CNA Daily News - US)

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Feb 7, 2025 / 17:30 pm (CNA).
The U.S. bishops’ conference drew attention to the global crisis of “modern-day slavery” in a statement on the International Day of Prayer and Awareness Against Human Trafficking.
The day is annually observed by Catholics on Feb. 8 — the feast day of St. Josephine Bakhita, patron saint of human trafficking victims.
Chairman of the bishops’ migration committee Bishop Mark J. Seitz of El Paso, Texas, cited the Holy Father in calling attention to the gravity of the issue.
“Human trafficking is not only a serious crime — it is a rejection of the God-given dignity of every human being. It is, as Pope Francis has said, an open wound on the body of Christ and on the body of all humanity, demanding an ongoing, united response,” Seitz said.
“The Catholic Church in the United States has long been at the forefront of the fight against human trafficking, and the U.S. bishops stand firmly alongside our Holy Father in his consistent efforts to shed light on this global injustice,” the statement continued.
Seitz urged Catholics to be vigilant, warning of the consequences of failing to protect the most vulnerable.
“For if we close our eyes and ears, if we become complacent, we will be held to account at the Last Judgment. As Catholics, we are called to face this issue with both courage and compassion, to initiate hard conversations, and to confront the harsh realities of trafficking and exploitation,” he said.
“At the same time, we will continue urging policymakers at all levels of government to pursue meaningful responses to this moral outrage — to bolster existing protections and expand services for survivors, including those made possible by the landmark Trafficking Victims Protection Act.”
Seitz criticized “proposals currently being discussed” that he said would “weaken or eliminate decades of bipartisan progress on this issue.”
“We must reject policies that lead to expanded opportunities for bad actors to prey on the vulnerable, whether within or beyond our country’s borders,” he said.
Last month, Seitz and USCCB President Archbishop Timothy Broglio released a statement critical of the Trump administration’s plans to curb immigration.
“Preventing any access to asylum and other protections will only endanger those who are most vulnerable and deserving of relief while empowering gangs and other predators to exploit them,” the bishops said at the time.
The bishops ask St. Josephine to intercede “as we pray for an end to human trafficking and for the healing, protection, and safety of all victims and survivors alike, especially for children and those in our society who are afraid to seek help because they are marginalized.”
St. Josephine, who became a nun after being freed from slavery, is “a reminder that the fight against human trafficking is not just a social issue but a spiritual mission,” and her transformation is “a powerful testament to hope, healing, and unyielding resilience.”
“On her feast day, all are encouraged to pray for an end to modern slavery and recommit to building a world where every person’s dignity is respected and protected, from conception to natural death,” the statement said.
Archbishop Naumann weighs in on need to solve current immigration, refugee challenges
Posted on 02/7/2025 21:30 PM (CNA Daily News - US)

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Feb 7, 2025 / 16:30 pm (CNA).
Archbishop Joseph F. Naumann of Kansas City, Kansas, is the latest among prelates throughout the country who are weighing in with Catholic perspectives on setting aright the country’s dysfunctional immigration system.
In a Feb. 7 op-ed published in his archdiocesan newspaper, Naumann began by echoing the commitment he and his fellow bishops in Kansas made in a joint Nov. 28, 2024, statement to serve migrants in the state “no matter what the future holds.”
Naumann noted that “the Church does not have the authority or the responsibility to determine the legal status of those living in the United States” but does have “an obligation to care for every person with respect and love, no matter their citizenship status.”
At the same time, the Kansas City archbishop offered a full-throated endorsement of prioritizing public safety threats in immigration enforcement.
“Allowing violent gangs, individuals with serious criminal histories, dealers of lethal illegal drugs, human traffickers, and those who pose threats to our national security to enter our country and harm U.S. citizens is a serious dereliction of duty by our elected leaders,” Naumann said. “I commend President [Donald] Trump and those in his administration for addressing this serious, national threat.”
Naumann went on to fault the Biden administration for its handling of the unprecedented wave of unaccompanied minors it allowed to enter the country.
“It is inconceivable that our previous administration either did not know or care about the location or the circumstances of approximately 300,000 children and youth who entered the United States during the past four years,” Naumann declared. “I salute President Trump and his administration for making it a priority to find these lost children and youth.”
“At the same time, the vast majority of those who entered our country illegally are not gang members, criminals, drug dealers, human traffickers, or terrorists posing a threat to our national security,“ Naumann continued.
The archbishop suggested that with strong border security, provisions should be made for “the millions who entered our country illegally but have not committed any other crime and are working hard, raising families, and contributing to the welfare of society.”
“If President Trump is able to shut down the border successfully, making illegal entry into our country virtually impossible, does it not make more sense to create a pathway for the undocumented to be able to earn legal status?” the archbishop argued. “If those who entered the nation illegally paid significant fines in reparation, why not allow them to receive at least a type of legal status? If not citizenship, perhaps work permits?”
Naumannn also made the case for beginning immigration reform with “Dreamers,” adults who as children were brought to the United States by their parents. “Maybe providing lasting, legal status for the Dreamers could be the place to begin the reform of our immigration policy,” he specified.
In closing, Naumann said: “I would love to have the opportunity to have a conversation with President Trump and/or Vice President [JD] Vance about immigration and refugee resettlement policies.”
“I would treasure the opportunity to make the case for how generous policies for worker permits and legal immigration could be important ingredients in helping make America great again!” he said.
Catholic bishops praise Trump’s executive order barring men from women’s sports
Posted on 02/7/2025 21:00 PM (CNA Daily News - US)

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Feb 7, 2025 / 16:00 pm (CNA).
Two committees of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) expressed their approval of President Donald Trump’s executive order that bans biological men from competing in women’s sports.
“We welcome the president’s executive order that protects opportunities for women and girls to compete in sports safely and fairly,” Diocese of Winona–Rochester, Minnesota, Bishop Robert Barron and Bishop David M. O’Connell of Trenton, New Jersey, said in a joint statement.
Barron is the chairman of the USCCB Committee on Laity, Marriage, Family Life, and Youth and O’Connell is the chairman of the Committee on Catholic Education.
“Consistent with the Catholic Church’s clear teaching on the equality of men and women, we reaffirm that, in education and in sports as elsewhere, policies must uphold human dignity,” the statement added. “This includes equal treatment between women and men and affirmation of the goodness of a person’s body, which is genetically and biologically female or male.”
Trump issued an executive order on Feb. 5 that prohibits any K–12 school, college, or university that receives federal funds from allowing biological men to compete in women’s sports or use women’s locker rooms. Any educational institution that violates the rule would lose federal funding.
On Feb. 6, the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) banned biological men from competing on women’s teams to comply with the order. The NCAA is the largest college athletic association and governs the athletic policies for the highest levels of college sports.
“Athletics not only provide valuable educational opportunities, fostering discipline, teamwork, and personal growth, but they also serve as a celebration of the human body as a gift from God,” the bishops said.
The bishops cited Catholic teaching on human sexuality as expressed in the catechism: “Man and woman have been created, which is to say, willed by God: on the one hand, in perfect equality as human persons; on the other, in their respective beings as man and woman. ‘Being man’ or ‘being woman’ is a reality which is good and willed by God.”
Additionally, the bishops noted that in accordance with respect to the dignity of every human person, the Church also “stands firmly against all unjust discrimination, including against those who experience gender discordance, who are equally loved by God.”
“Students who experience gender dysphoria bear the full measure of human dignity, and they therefore must be treated with kindness and respect,” the statement added. “Similar to their peers, those students must be assured the right to participate in or try out for co-educational activities in accord with their biological sex.”
Virginia McCaskey, Chicago Bears owner and pro-life Catholic, dies at 102
Posted on 02/7/2025 20:30 PM (CNA Daily News - US)

CNA Staff, Feb 7, 2025 / 15:30 pm (CNA).
Virginia McCaskey, principal owner of the Chicago Bears football team and a committed pro-life Catholic, died Thursday at age 102.
“While we are sad, we are comforted knowing Virginia Halas McCaskey lived a long, full, faith-filled life and is now with the love of her life on earth,” her family said in a statement as reported by the Chicago Tribune.
A deeply dedicated Catholic and mother of 11 who was referred to as “The First Lady of the NFL,” McCaskey for over four decades quietly guided the team that her father, George “Papa Bear” Halas, founded. Halas, a legendary coach, was also a co-founder of the NFL and lends his name to the NFC Championship trophy.
After her only sibling and the team’s original heir, George “Mugs” Halas Jr., died unexpectedly in 1979, McCaskey reluctantly inherited ownership of the Bears when her father died in 1983. Three years later, the Bears won their first Super Bowl.
Though the team has yet to hoist the Vince Lombardi trophy since then and various Bears executives have attracted fans’ ire over the years, McCaskey herself was “always was respected and admired in Chicago and NFL circles alike,” a Tribune columnist noted.
McCaskey’s husband of over 60 years, Ed, died in 2003. She is survived by nine of her 11 children — six boys and three girls, two sons having died of cancer — as well as 21 grandchildren, 40 great-grandchildren and four great-great-grandchildren, the Chicago Tribune reported.
“Faith, family, and football — in that order — were her north stars and she lived by the simple adage to always ‘do the right thing,’” NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said in a Thursday statement.
“The Bears that her father started meant the world to her, and he would be proud of the way she continued the family business with such dedication and passion.”
Faith journey
Virginia Marion Halas McCaskey was born on Jan. 5, 1923. Her father, George, wrote in his autobiography that he was so certain she would be a boy that he and his wife “didn’t even have a name for a girl.”
Her parents were both children of immigrants, her mother being a German Lutheran and her father a Czech Catholic, McCaskey explained in a 2015 interview posted to YouTube.
McCaskey’s paternal grandmother, who lived with them for part of every year, prayed the rosary every day, and McCaskey later realized many of her grandmother’s prayers “must have been for me and my brother.” Later in life, McCaskey’s mother converted to Catholicism.
The young McCaskey was educated by Benedictine sisters at St. Hillary's elementary school for eighth grade and Chicago’s now-shuttered St. Scholastica High School before attending college at Drexel Institute, now Drexel University, in Philadelphia.
Through a Bible study class in the early 1970s, McCaskey said she got connected to the devotional group World Apostolate of Fatima, formerly the Blue Army of Our Lady of Fatima. She also became acquainted with mothers of girls attending Willows Academy, a local all-girls school under the care of the Catholic personal prelature Opus Dei. McCaskey later became a cooperator to support the work of Opus Dei.
McCaskey said over the years she cultivated spiritual practices such as attending early morning daily Mass, taking time for praying the rosary and personal prayer, listening to Relevant Radio, and reading spiritual books. In her later life, she would often offer Nativity sets as gifts to families to help them celebrate the Advent and Christmas seasons.
She added that she and her husband tried to raise their large family “God’s way.” The family gathered to pray the rosary almost every night after dinner.
Pat McCaskey, Ed and Virginia’s fourth child and a Bears vice president and board member, expressed appreciation for the strong faith his mother and father passed on to him and his family in an interview with the National Catholic Register in 2018.
A frequent speaker at the March for Life Chicago, the younger McCaskey co-founded Sports Faith International, an organization that honors “people who are successful in sports while leading exemplary lives.”
“For our family, being Catholic is not incidental … Being a good Catholic is more important than winning, but that doesn’t mean you can’t win as a good Catholic. Ideally, the two go together,” Pat McCaskey told the Register.
‘Countless lives have been saved’
American Life League (ALL), a Virginia-based national pro-life group, praised McCaskey on Thursday as one of the group’s “dearest supporters.”
“Through the work and tireless support of the McCaskey family, there is no doubt that countless lives have been saved,” ALL said Thursday.
Speaking to ALL’s magazine in 2020, McCaskey related the story of how in the early days of her marriage, she and her husband learned that an abortion facility would soon open directly across the street from their local hospital.
“It felt like a personal attack on our values and our neighborhood,” McCaskey recalled.
“We knew we needed to do something more than write letters and write a few small checks to different organizations,” she continued, saying she soon after learned about the pro-life advocacy work of ALL and remained a strong supporter of the organization for the rest of her life.
“These people were going all out for what they believed in. They were giving more than just lip service to the cause,” McCaskey said of ALL.
She told the magazine she was particularly thankful to God for the invention of the sonogram because a mother “can face the reality that this is a living child,” not a blob of tissue.
In 2009, McCaskey received a “People of Life” award from the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Secretariat of Pro-life Activities. The People of Life award is presented to individuals who have “demonstrated their lifetime commitment to the pro-life movement, to promoting respect for the dignity of the human person, and to advocacy for an end to the culture of death in this nation.”
“I accept this on behalf of all the little old ladies who … write checks, and pray rosaries, and listen to Relevant Radio and who usually struggle to get to daily Mass … I salute you,” McCaskey said in accepting the honor at the time.
Trump task force on anti-Christian bias will review policies of FBI, DOJ, other agencies
Posted on 02/7/2025 19:00 PM (CNA Daily News - US)

Washington D.C., Feb 7, 2025 / 14:00 pm (CNA).
President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Thursday evening to create a task force to eradicate anti-Christian bias within the federal government.
The Task Force to Eradicate Anti-Christian Bias will review policies in federal departments and agencies, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). It will be led by Attorney General Pam Bondi, who was confirmed by the Senate on Tuesday. The heads of other departments will also serve on the task force.
According to the order, the task force will review policies in every department to “identify any unlawful anti-Christian policies, practices, or conduct” and recommend agency heads to end them. The task force, which will conclude in two years, will also submit reports to the president 120 days from its creation, one year after its creation, and a final report when it finishes its work.
The executive order directs the Department of Justice (DOJ) to provide the task force with funding and administrative and technical support.
Trump announced his intention to create the task force Feb. 6 at the National Prayer Breakfast.
Combat targeting of Catholics, Christians, pro-life Americans
Trump’s executive order laid out numerous examples of anti-Christian bias as a reference point for the types of policies the task force was created to root out, including a 2023 Richmond FBI memo that established a plan to investigate traditionalist Catholics.
“[The memo] asserted that ‘radical-traditionalist’ Catholics were domestic-terrorism threats and suggested infiltrating Catholic churches as ‘threat mitigation,’” the executive order states. “This later-retracted FBI memorandum cited as support evidence propaganda from highly partisan sources.”
In the memo, FBI officials detailed an investigation into supposed ties between what it called “radical-traditionalist” Catholics and “the far-right white nationalist movement.” It recommended “trip wire or source development” within parishes that offer the Latin Mass and within online communities it deemed “radical-traditionalist.”
The FBI relied on the Southern Poverty Law Center to designate “radical-traditionalist” Catholics in the memo. The FBI rescinded the memo after it was leaked to the public.
Certain regulatory actions were also listed as examples of anti-Christian bias, including rules to prohibit “discrimination” based on a person’s self-asserted “gender identity.”
This includes a rule issued by President Joe Biden’s Department of Health and Human Services that could have forced Catholic hospitals to perform transgender surgeries on patients, including minors. The regulation would have required religious organizations to cover such surgeries in their insurance plans.
Trump’s executive order also listed the DOJ’s prosecution of pro-life activists under the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act and the comparative lack of prosecutions for attacks on Catholic churches, charities, and pro-life pregnancy resource centers as another example of bias. Trump pardoned the pro-life activists prosecuted under Biden’s DOJ.
“My administration will not tolerate anti-Christian weaponization of government or unlawful conduct targeting Christians,” the executive order states.
“The law protects the freedom of Americans and groups of Americans to practice their faith in peace, and my administration will enforce the law and protect these freedoms,” it adds. “My administration will ensure that any unlawful and improper conduct, policies, or practices that target Christians are identified, terminated, and rectified.”
Tommy Valentine, the Catholic accountability project director for CatholicVote, said the executive order is “truly welcome news for Catholics, who have seen our churches attacked to the tune of nearly 500 acts of violence and vandalism in the last five years.”
“Let nobody be confused as to whether Joe Biden or Donald Trump was a greater friend to Christians while in the White House,” Valentine said in a statement.
“Our second Catholic president facilitated the persecution and prosecution of Christians who disagreed with his anti-Christian agenda, while the current president stands strong for the safety and religious freedom of Christians everywhere,” he added. “We thank the Trump administration for this order and look forward to the fruit it will bear.”
Maryland Supreme Court upholds law ending statute of limitations on child sex abuse lawsuits
Posted on 02/7/2025 18:30 PM (CNA Daily News - US)

CNA Staff, Feb 7, 2025 / 13:30 pm (CNA).
The Maryland Supreme Court this week found that the state Child Victims Act (CVA) of 2023 did not violate the state constitution, allowing victims to file civil lawsuits against alleged abusers — including Catholic officials — regardless of when the abuse occurred.
The high court this week upheld the 2023 law, which had abolished a 20-year statute of limitations for civil child abuse suits, ruling against three plaintiffs including the archbishop of Washington, D.C.
The 2023 law, which passed the state Legislature that year with near-unanimous support and was signed by state Gov. Wes Moore, effectively repealed a “statute of repose” that had been established in 2017 and that limited the timeline for filing child abuse claims in the state to 20 years after the alleged victim became an adult.
A statute of repose is similar to a statute of limitations, though it is usually stricter in enforcing a timeline by which individuals can bring lawsuits.
The plaintiffs had argued at the high court that the statute of repose established by the 2017 law had created a right to be “free of liability,” shielding them from lawsuits subsequently brought under the 2023 statute.
The state Supreme Court, however, ruled that the 2017 law established a statute of limitations rather than repose, and thus the law “did not give rise to a vested right to be free of liability” after the 2023 law repealed the statute.
The court ruled 4-3 in favor of the CVA. In a dissent, Justice Jonathan Biran said the court’s majority “fails to interpret the 2017 act as the General Assembly wrote it.”
“It is difficult to imagine how the General Assembly could more plainly state that [the law established] a statute of repose,” Biran said, pointing to the explicit use of the term in the law.
The high court’s Feb. 3 ruling incorporated three separate cases brought by plaintiffs who had been sued for abuse under the 2023 law and were challenging its constitutionality.
Among the plaintiffs was the archbishop of Washington, who was sued in Prince George’s County in 2024 “for alleged sexual and emotional abuse by clergy.”
The other plaintiffs were the Harford County Board of Education and the Annapolis-based Key School.