Sacred Heart Catholic Church

Aid to the Church in Need released its 2024 report detailing how it spent $150 million in donations on June 18, 2025. / Credit: yul38885/Shutterstock

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jun 18, 2025 / 16:53 pm (CNA).

The international Catholic nonprofit Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) spent more than $150 million on thousands of projects to support Christians in 137 countries in 2024, according to a financial report released by the organization on June 18.

Some of the projects included aid to Christians in Ukraine and countries throughout the Middle East and Africa. They also supported faith formation for Catholic seminarians, priests, and laypeople, and funded transportation and construction costs in service to the Church.

Based in Germany, ACN, which is supported by donations and does not receive government funding, reported that about 80% of funds was spent directly on mission-related expenses. A little more than 7% was spent on administrative expenses and nearly 13% went to advertising.

ACN received funds from more than 360,000 donors from 23 different countries. 

Nearly 85% of mission-related expenses supported 5,335 aid projects globally, according to the report. The remaining 15% of mission-related funding supported information work such as the publication of Christian literature and advocacy for Christians, proclaiming the Catholic faith, and defense of persecuted Christians. 

“Thanks to your generosity, ACN has been able to bring hope to hundreds of thousands of our brothers and sisters in faith, who face daily challenges such as persecution or wars or sheer poverty,” ACN International Executive President Regina Lynch said in a statement.

“Many of you experience your own hardships, but still, you have answered God’s call to bring hope to others,” Lynch said. “At the heart of every project is the desire to help the Church to be an instrument of God’s message of love for all people.”

In total, ACN received $150.4 million in donations throughout the year and spent an additional $2.4 million in reserves from the previous year. The funding was nearly identical to 2023, when ACN received $154 million in donations and spent an additional $800,000 from reserves.

According to the report, faith formation accounted for more than 28% of the total funding and Mass stipends accounted for nearly 24%. Construction projects represented nearly 24% of funding and transportation accounted for about 10.5% of funds.

Throughout 2024, ACN provided nearly 1.85 million Mass stipends to more than 42,000 priests, which means that nearly every 17 seconds a Mass was celebrated because of ACN funds, an ACN news release noted.

Funds also supported faith formation for nearly 10,000 seminarians throughout the year, which the news release stated represents 1 in every 11 seminarians. This includes more than 5,300 in Africa, more than 1,800 in Latin America, more than 1,750 in Asia, and nearly 1,100 in Europe.

Aid to Ukraine, Africa, the Middle East

As the Russia-Ukraine war continued through 2024, Christians in Ukraine were the largest benefactors of support from ACN.

ACN spent about $9.1 million on Ukraine, which included funding for counseling and support for people suffering from trauma. The money also included funding to train seminarians and to support priests’ basic needs as well as to pay for transportation for them to carry out their pastoral ministry.

Speaking with “EWTN News Nightly,” Father Anton Lässer — the ecclesiastical assistant for ACN — recalled his last trip to Ukraine, saying: “You see these young people, they have lost a leg or an arm or they are blind.”

He spoke about one soldier he encountered there.

“When he was in the hospital he … couldn’t talk so he showed to the sister, ‘please open my eyes’ so that he could realize if he was still able to see,” Lässer said. “And he told us he was never [as] grateful as when he could realize he was still able to see.”

The continent that received the most support from ACN was Africa, where the organization spent more than 30% of its funds. Nigeria and Burkina Faso received the largest amount of aid.

“The Church in Africa is growing rapidly and is blessed with large numbers of priestly and religious vocations,” Lynch said in a statement. “Africa suffers not only from deep poverty but also increasingly from violent Islamic jihadist terror in a growing number of countries.”

Following Africa, the region that received the second most funding was Asia-Oceania, where about 18.7% of the money was spent. The largest benefactors were Christians in India, which accounted for $6.7 million worth of funding. According to ACN, Christians in India are the largest benefactors of scholarships and Mass stipends from ACN funds.

About 17.5% of the funding was spent in the Middle East, with Christians in Lebanon, Syria, and the Holy Land being the largest benefactors. According to ACN, this funding helped to support Christians facing struggles due to armed conflicts.

Latin America accounted for nearly 17% of the funding and Europe received nearly 16% of the funding. About 1% went to other regions.

Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York. / Credit: Jonah McKeown/CNA

CNA Staff, Jun 18, 2025 / 16:23 pm (CNA).

Leading Catholic voices in New York, including Cardinal Timothy Dolan, are urging the state’s Catholic governor to veto an assisted suicide bill that has no wait period or psychological evaluation requirement.  

“This is the cheapening of human life,” Dolan said in a June 17 episode of “Conversations with Cardinal Dolan.”

Gov. Kathy Hochul, a Catholic, has yet to publicly disclose her position on the bill. The state Senate passed the measure on June 9 in spite of bipartisan opposition in the New York Legislature, where numerous Democrats voted against it along with all Republicans. 

Proponents of the bill say assisted suicide would expand end-of-life choices. New York state Sen. Brad Hoylman-Sigal, a Senate sponsor of the bill, said that New York “has made history” by passing the bill, which he says will “reduce human suffering.”

Dennis Poust, the executive director of the New York State Catholic Conference, called the bill “the worst assisted suicide bill in the country” because of its lack of patient guardrails.

While assisted suicide is legal in a dozen states and the District of Columbia, the New York bill is unique in that it has no waiting period, Poust said.

“You could get a terminal diagnosis from your doctor. You’ll be grief-stricken, you’ll be in despair, and you could at that moment request assisted suicide drugs from that doctor and then from a subsequent doctor next door,” Poust told “EWTN News Nightly” on June 13.

“The next day, you could be ending your life,” he said. “It’s egregious.”

Poust also criticized the lack of a psychological evaluation requirement in the bill. 

“Everyone who gets a terminal diagnosis has a moment of depression,” he said. “We all know the five stages of grief, and depression is one of them. But the doctors don’t have to even go there. They can just prescribe the pills if you’re of sound mind.” 

Dolan had earlier expressed hope in a June 10 episode of his show, recalling when he spoke with Hochul about the subject at the June 8 National Puerto Rican Day Parade.

The cardinal said he has praised Hochul for her work in support of mental health care. Hochul has promoted mental health support and suicide prevention during her tenure, including a billion-dollar effort to improve mental care.

“Suicide is an effect when somebody’s struggling emotionally as well as physically,” Dolan recalled telling the governor. “That’s when people are so desperate and we have to help their mental health so that they don’t go for suicide — that’s why we don’t want the physician-assisted suicide.” 

“She didn’t commit herself, but something tells me her gut’s not into this,” Dolan continued. “I’m hoping she’ll take the courageous, right thing to do.”

Dolan urged local Catholics to write to the governor and share their opposition to the bill. 

“This bill is just bad public policy,” Poust said. “It’s bad for people with disabilities, vulnerable people, people of color who tend to live in medically underserved areas and already get cheated in the health care system.”

“There are a lot of good reasons for the governor to veto this that have really nothing to do with her Catholic faith,” Poust continued.

Assisted suicide legislation has passed in multiple countries across the globe, including Canada. But these laws have seen backlash in many cases as assisted suicide has encroached on health care.

Poust urged anyone who is considering assisted suicide to seek out palliative care.

“We don’t want anyone to suffer,” Poust said. “We want people to avail themselves of hospice care. There are ways to control pain. There are ways to pass from this life to the next in peace and love and with caring people around you.”

“I would strongly urge people to not despair and to let God take you when he’s good and ready,” Poust concluded.

null / Credit: Wolfgang Schaller|Shutterstock.

CNA Staff, Jun 18, 2025 / 15:23 pm (CNA).

In a pivotal 6-3 decision, the U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday ruled to uphold Tennessee’s ban on medical procedures on transgender-identifying youth.

The June 18 ruling in United States v. Skrmetti marks a significant victory for Tennessee and 25 other states with similar restrictions on transgender medical interventions, such as puberty blockers, hormone therapy, and surgeries for minors. 

Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti on X hailed the ruling as a “landmark VICTORY for Tennessee,” emphasizing its role in “defending America’s children.” 

Tennessee’s defense was supported by 24 Republican state attorneys general; Republican governors; the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, who issued a statement in 2023 opposing surgeries that mutilate the human body; conservative legal and policy groups; and “detransitioners” who no longer identify as transgender.

Christian legal nonprofit Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) attorneys filed a friend-of-the-court brief with the Supreme Court in October 2024, urging the court to allow state legislatures to protect children from “experimental medical procedures.”

ADF CEO and President Kristen Waggoner called Wednesday’s decision a “monumental victory for children, science, and common sense.” 

She continued: “No one has the right to harm a child. The Biden administration and ACLU asked the court to create a ‘constitutional right’ to give children harmful, experimental drugs and surgeries that turn them into patients for life. This would have forced states to base their laws on ideology, not evidence — to the immense harm of countless children … States are free to protect children from the greatest medical scandal in generations — and that’s exactly what states like Tennessee have done.”

The Biden administration had argued that gender-altering medical interventions are necessary for transgender youth. 

Directly opposing the Biden administration’s position, President Donald Trump signed an executive order in January ending federal support for gender transition-related care for minors and, in a March joint address to Congress, called for federal legislation “permanently banning and criminalizing sex changes on children.” 

Background and legal arguments

The case stemmed from L.W. v. Skrmetti, where parents argued that the Tennessee law, Senate Bill 1 (SB1), violated the 14th Amendment’s due process clause by infringing on their right to make medical decisions for their children. They also claimed the law violated the equal protection clause by discriminating based on sex. 

The 6th Circuit Court of Appeals had previously upheld SB1, finding it constitutional under both due process and equal protection analyses, contrasting with the 8th Circuit’s 2024 ruling striking down a similar Arkansas law on equal protection grounds.

At the Supreme Court, U.S. Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar and ACLU attorney Chase Strangio argued for the plaintiffs, asserting that SB1 constituted sex-based discrimination requiring intermediate scrutiny — a standard demanding that the state show the law is substantially related to an important government objective. 

They claimed Tennessee failed to meet this burden, as the law targeted treatments specific to transgender minors, effectively discriminating based on sex.

Tennessee Solicitor General J. Matthew Rice countered that SB1 did not discriminate based on sex but instead regulated medical interventions based on age and purpose. He argued for rational basis review, a lower standard requiring only that the law be rationally related to a legitimate government objective, such as protecting minors from unproven medical interventions. 

Rice argued in favor of the state’s authority to regulate medical interventions, particularly for children, given ongoing debates about the long-term effects of gender-based medical treatments.

The Supreme Court’s majority opinion on Wednesday held that SB1 does not constitute sex discrimination warranting heightened scrutiny. The court ruled that the law distinguishes treatments based on their medical purpose, not sex, and thus passes rational basis review.

Chief Justice John Roberts, writing for the majority, echoed his earlier remarks during oral arguments in December 2024: “The Constitution leaves that question to the people’s representatives, rather than to nine people, none of whom is a doctor.” 

Justice Sonia Sotomayor, joined fully by Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson and partially by Justice Elena Kagan, filed a dissenting opinion contending that the law targets transgender minors by denying them access to medical treatments available to others for different purposes and warrants heightened scrutiny because the law “singles out transgender youth for unequal treatment, punishing them for their gender identity in violation of equal protection principles.”

Justice Kagan, in a separate dissenting opinion, emphasized the law’s infringement on parental rights under the due process clause and its lack of rational basis given medical evidence supporting gender-affirming care. She also argued that Tennessee’s categorical ban disregards established medical standards and parental decision-making authority without adequate justification. 

“By overriding medical consensus and parental choices, this law undermines fundamental liberties and sets a dangerous precedent for state overreach,” Kagan stated.

Father Theodore Gabrielli, SJ. / Credit: San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s Office

CNA Staff, Jun 18, 2025 / 12:27 pm (CNA).

A priest in California has been arrested and charged with acts of child sex abuse that reportedly occurred through the 1990s. 

Police arrested Father Theodore Gabrielli last week on charges of aggravated sexual assault of a minor, the San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s Office said in a post on X on Tuesday. 

Authorities identified three alleged male victims of the priest, the sheriff’s office said; all three were members of the same family. 

At the time of the alleged abuse, “the family was living in Mexico” where they allegedly befriended Gabrielli. 

“The priest became close with the family, and he was allowed to take the three boys with him to many places in California including his parents’ residence in Los Osos,” the sheriff’s office said. “It was there, the victims stated, the priest would sexually assault them.” 

The alleged assaults “continued over the course of about eight years,” reportedly between 1991 and 1999. The victims “decided to come forward last year and report the abuse,” the statement added. 

Gabrielli was arrested in Los Osos on June 12.

The 2023 Archdiocese of Los Angeles directory listed Gabrielli as residing at the Dolores Mission. As recently as June 1 he was listed as a member of the Loyola High School Los Angeles board of directors, though his listing had been removed as of June 18. 

His name has also apparently been removed from the staff directory of Our Lady of Guadalupe Parish in San Diego. 

The Archdiocese of Los Angeles did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Gabrielli’s arrest.

Archbishop Timothy Broglio, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, speaks at the USCCB fall plenary assembly Nov. 14, 2023. / Credit: USCCB video

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jun 17, 2025 / 18:26 pm (CNA).

As the Trump administration steps up immigration enforcement actions throughout the country, U.S. bishops are raising their voices in solidarity with unauthorized immigrants who are being arrested “on the basis of immigration status alone” and sending the message that “enforcement alone” cannot be the solution to addressing the nation’s immigration challenges.

Speaking on behalf of his fellow bishops, U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops president Archbishop Timothy Broglio stated that “law enforcement actions aimed at preserving order and ensuring community security are necessary for the common good. However, the current efforts go well beyond those with criminal histories.”

“The mass arrest and removal of our neighbors, friends, and family members on the basis of immigration status alone, particularly in ways that are arbitrary or without due process, represent a profound social crisis before which no person of goodwill can remain silent,” Broglio said.

“On behalf of my brother bishops, I want to assure all of those affected by actions which tear at the fabric of our communities of the solidarity of your pastors,” Broglio continued. “Count on the commitment of all of us to stand with you in this challenging hour.”

At the same time, referencing protests against immigration enforcement in various cities across the country, Broglio insisted that “while protest and dissent can be a legitimate expression of democratic participation, violence is never acceptable.”

The prelate also pushed back against what he said were “unfounded accusations against Catholic service providers, who every day endeavor to provide critical support and care to the most vulnerable,” adding that such accusations “contribute to societal tensions and a growing climate of fear.”

Broglio concluded by calling for “just and humane solutions” to these immigration challenges and pledged the “cooperation and goodwill” of the nation’s bishops toward that end.

Bishop Robert Barron of Winona-Rochester, Minnesota. / Credit: “EWTN News Nightly”/Screenshot

Washington D.C., Jun 17, 2025 / 17:56 pm (CNA).

During the first hearing of President Donald Trump’s Religious Liberty Commission, Bishop Robert Barron echoed Pope Benedict XVI’s warning against the “dictatorship of relativism” encroaching on American society.

Barron, bishop of the Diocese of Winona-Rochester, Minnesota, said at the June 16 hearing that “religion is being attacked in our society” and referenced a homily given by then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger in April 2005, the day before he was elected pope.

“[This attack] is coming from a … philosophy that Joseph Ratzinger — Pope Benedict XVI — called the ‘dictatorship of relativism,’” Barron said. “I call it the culture of self-invention: the complete prioritization given to individual autonomy; that we decide value, that we decide meaning, that we decide purpose.”

That philosophy, according to Barron, “rightly appreciates the classical religions as the chief opponent.” He said these tensions arise from religious views that stand for objective moral values grounded on God and a stable human nature, which leads adherents of relativism to seek to push faith out of sectors of public life, such as in education and health care.

Many members of the commission and guest witnesses expressed similar concerns about the lack of faith and decline in religious liberty in the country through laws and regulations at the federal and state levels of government.

This includes rules that force religious Americans to violate their beliefs through contraception mandates for health care coverage, which the Little Sisters of the Poor defeated at the Supreme Court. Yet Catholic nuns are still fighting state-level contraception mandates in states like New York. 

Members also touched on parental rights in education, such as the ongoing Supreme Court case against Montgomery County Public Schools, where officials are denying parents the ability to opt their children out of lessons that promote transgenderism as early as preschool.

The commission includes two Catholic prelates: Barron and Cardinal Timothy Dolan, the latter of whom was absent due to transportation issues. The 14-member commission is led by Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and includes Ryan Anderson, president of the Ethics and Public Policy Center; Pastor Paula White, special advisor to the White House Faith Office; psychologist and talk show host Phil McGraw; and neurosurgeon Dr. Ben Carson.

Attorney General Pam Bondi, who spoke at the hearing, said the president is seeking to reverse these trends, adding that the commission’s work is “vital to addressing the emerging threats to religious liberty.” The commission will develop a report within the next year to advise Trump on how he can combat threats to religious freedom.

Bondi, who said religious liberty is “built into the foundation of our founding documents,” voiced criticism of the past administration under former President Joe Biden. She noted some recent threats to religious liberty including the prosecution of pro-life protesters, an FBI investigation into traditionalist Catholics, and the shutdown of places of worship during COVID-19.

“Every individual must be free to worship without fear, without coercion, and without government interference,” Bondi said. 

Freedom to worship or free exercise?

One theme throughout the first hearing of the commission was that the First Amendment guarantee that Congress shall make no law “prohibiting the free exercise” of religion is not limited to simply a freedom to worship God but rather extends to living out one’s faith.

Anderson, for example, argued that attacks on religious liberty are not just related to worship but rather extend to attacks on the right to “bring your religious values into the public square.”

One of the expert witnesses who addressed the commission, Becket Fund for Religious Liberty president Mark Rienzi, emphasized this point, noting that the “freedom to live out one’s faith” is essential to the First Amendment, adding that religious liberty is “the basis and bellwether for all human rights.”

Rienzi spoke about the historical efforts to defend religious liberty in the United States, noting that there were bad Supreme Court cases throughout American history, such as the Minersville School District v. Gobitis decision, which sought to force Jehovah’s Witnesses to salute the flag in schools despite their belief that it was “equivalent to worshipping a false idol.” 

This 1940 decision was quickly overturned just three years later when the court ruled in favor of Jehovah’s Witnesses in West Virginia who refused to salute the flag. Rienzi said governments often try to reject religious liberty for the case of convenience but that the court decided “some things are beyond the reach of politics and government.” 

“There are places in our lives where the government is not allowed to go,” Rienzi added.

Separation of church and state

Questions about the separation of church and state and to what degree the government can or should promote religion as a public good were also discussed at length during the commission’s hearing. 

Mark David Hall, the director of the Center for Religion, Culture, and Democracy at Regent University, testified that the separation of church and state is not a “bilateral barrier” but is rather meant to only restrict the state from imposing itself on the church.

Former Notre Dame law professor Gerard Bradley, who spoke as an expert witness, similarly said the American Founding Fathers did not envision a public “secularized space in which religion was banished.”

He argued that a proper promotion of the common good includes “encouragement and help and recognition of religion.” For example, he criticized lawmakers for justifying legislative prayer as just a way to solemnize the activity, arguing they should simply say “we’re praying here.”

“It’s fine if the government works with religion, even for the sake of religion,” Bradley said. 

Bradley encouraged “promoting religion for the sake of religion,” such as having prayer in public schools, but noted that the government must be careful to not be sectarian. He also said any promotion should have voluntary observance and any policy should be “considered carefully” to ensure there are no violations of people’s rights.

McGraw, commonly known as “Dr. Phil,” mildly pushed back on that position, saying: “If we’re promoting religion, that’s different than promoting choice.”

Bradley responded, arguing that just like the government “ought to promote marriage and family as good things” it should also “promote [religion] as a good thing” rather than remain neutral on the subject.

null / Credit: PIGAMA/Shutterstock

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jun 17, 2025 / 16:56 pm (CNA).

Archbishop Edward Weisenburger of Detroit has identified the non-parish churches in the archdiocese that are allowed to continue the Traditional Latin Mass (TLM), following an earlier statement saying that most of the TLM celebrated in the area would come to an end. 

In April, the archdiocese announced that the TLM would no longer be celebrated at parish churches after July 1. Weisenburger said the end of the TLM was due to the Vatican’s 2023 clarification that diocesan bishops do not have the authority to allow the Masses to be held in existing parish churches.

The archdiocese reported that permissions given to parish church priests to carry out the TLM would expire and they could not be renewed, but Weisenburger said he would recognize at least four non-parish locations in the archdiocese where the TLM could still be celebrated.

On June 13, the archdiocese released a letter with an update on the Masses and a list of approved churches. 

“As there are a number of the faithful in our local Church who have found spiritual richness in this form of the Mass, I am permitting it to continue in accord with the Holy See’s parameters,” Weisenburger wrote.

“You will recall that in 2021, Pope Francis issued guidelines for the celebration of the Mass in the extraordinary form, commonly called the ‘Traditional Latin Mass.’ This is the expression of the Mass which was offered prior to Vatican II.”

The letter expressed that the Masses will be held in accordance with “the new liturgical teachings and law of the Church.”

“There are two goods which must come together as we move forward: the pastoral care of these faithful as well as fidelity to the Holy Father’s call for the ordinary form of the Mass to become the ‘unique expression of the lex orandi of the Roman rite’ (Traditionis Custodes, 1),” Weisenburger said. 

“Guided by these principles, beginning July 1, 2025, the Traditional Latin Mass will be offered at St. Joseph Shrine in Detroit in the central region and three non-parish churches in each additional region of the Archdiocese of Detroit.”

The other churches include St. Irene Church in Dundee in the south region, Our Lady of Orchard Lake Chapel in Orchard Lake in the northwest region, and St. Joseph Church in Port Huron in the northeast region.

Permission for all other churches and sites that celebrate the TLM will still expire as originally planned, on June 30.

“While not every priest will retain the required permission to celebrate the Mass according to the rubrics of the 1962 missal, a number of priests will be available to serve these four regional sites,” Weisenburger explained. 

“I take seriously my charge to care for all the faithful and am confident that this new arrangement is faithful to the Church’s law while expressing my concern for your spiritual welfare.”

“I have been impressed by the rich expressions of the Catholic faith in southeast Michigan,”  Weisenburger said. “The unity of our Catholic faith need not be diminished by diversity. Likewise, fidelity to Christ is only possible if we remain faithful to the Church, under the leadership of our pope and the local bishop.”

A Georgia woman gave birth to a 1-pound, 16-ounce baby boy on June 13, 2025, after four months on life support. / Credit: liseykina/Shutterstock

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jun 17, 2025 / 16:26 pm (CNA).

A Georgia woman who was declared brain dead in February has given birth after four months on life support.

Adriana Smith, an Atlanta nurse, gave birth via emergency cesarean section at 29 weeks to a 1-pound, 13-ounce baby boy named Chance on Friday, June 13.

Baby Chance is currently in the NICU. Smith’s mother, April Newkirk, told 11Alive that “he’s expected to be OK,” adding: “He’s just fighting. We just want prayers for him. Just keep praying for him. He’s here now.”

According to Newkirk, doctors had been planning to deliver him at 32 weeks, but Smith had an emergency C-section Friday for unspecified reasons. 

Smith, who turned 31 on Sunday, will be taken off life support on Tuesday, June 17, her mother said. 

“I’m her mother,” Newkirk said. “I shouldn’t be burying my daughter. My daughter should be burying me.”

Smith also has a 7-year-old son. 

Background

In February, Smith visited a hospital complaining of painful headaches but was sent home with medication. The next morning, her boyfriend found her “gasping for air” and called 911. 

After a CT scan, doctors discovered multiple blood clots in her brain and eventually determined nothing could be done and declared the then-30-year-old nurse, who was nine weeks pregnant, brain dead.

Smith’s case garnered national attention in May after a local news station interviewed Newkirk, who said Emory University Hospital in Atlanta said that Smith had to remain on life support until the birth of her unborn child, citing what Newkirk said was the Georgia state abortion law. 

Newkirk said last month that not having a choice regarding her daughter’s treatment plan was difficult. She also expressed concern about raising both her grandsons and the mounting medical costs.

Georgia law prohibits abortion once a fetal heartbeat is detected, usually around the sixth week of pregnancy. However, removing life support from a pregnant woman is not a direct abortion.

In response to national outcry over Smith’s case, the Georgia attorney general’s office released a statement in May clarifying that the state’s heartbeat law, which prohibits abortions after detection of a fetal heartbeat, did not require Smith be kept alive.

“There is nothing in the LIFE Act that requires medical professionals to keep a woman on life support after brain death,” said the statement, issued by Attorney General Chris Carr’s office.  

Quoting the law itself, the statement continued: “Removing life support is not an action ‘with the purpose to terminate a pregnancy.’”

A spokesperson for the Georgia House told the Washington Post in May that the LIFE Act is “completely irrelevant” regarding Smith’s situation, saying “any implication otherwise is just another gross mischaracterization of the intent of this legislation by liberal media outlets and left-wing activists.”

Although he supports the hospital’s decision to keep the unborn child alive until viability, state Sen. Ed Stetzer, the original sponsor of the LIFE Act, told CNA in May that “the removal of the life support of the mother is a separate act” from an abortion.

David Gibbs III, a lawyer at the National Center for Life and Liberty who was a lead attorney in the Terri Schiavo case, said he thinks there may be a misunderstanding about which law the hospital is invoking in Smith’s case. Georgia’s Advance Directive for Health Care Act may be the law at play here, Gibbs told CNA.

Section 31-32-9 of that law states that if a woman is pregnant and “in a terminal condition or state of permanent unconsciousness” and the unborn child is viable, certain life-sustaining procedures may not be withdrawn.

“The majority of states have advance directive laws with a pregnancy exclusion,” Gibbs explained.

A pregnancy exclusion means that if a patient is pregnant, the law prioritizes the survival of her unborn child over her stated wishes in an advance directive if there is a conflict between her wishes and the child’s well-being.

“When in doubt, the law should err on the side of life,” he said.

The Trump administration’s Religious Liberty Commission meets in Washington, D.C., on Monday, June 16, 2025. / Credit: Tessa Gervasini/CNA

Washington D.C., Jun 17, 2025 / 15:22 pm (CNA).

The White House Religious Liberty Commission held its first hearing in Washington, D.C., on Monday where members received a number of recommendations on how to protect religious freedom in the United States.

Chairman of the commission Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and Vice Chairman Ben Carson hosted the meeting with members Ryan Anderson; Bishop Robert Barron of Winona-Rochester, Minnesota; Carrie Prejean Boller; Allyson Ho; and other figures in the religious liberty movement. 

The June 16 hearing featured guest speakers Josh Blackman, associate law professor at South Texas College of Law; Stephanie Barclay, law professor at Georgetown Law School; and Kristen Waggoner, CEO and president of the law firm Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF).

The three lawyers offered numerous suggestions for the commission to report to President Donald Trump on how to help preserve and strengthen religious liberty in the U.S. 

Pointing to multiple religious freedom court cases over the last few decades, Blackman said: “If you’re giving money to nonreligious groups, you can’t discriminate against religious groups.” Religious groups, he said, should be treated “the same as everything else.” 

Blackman’s other recommendations were for the commission to “bring more cases from the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) perspective” to the Supreme Court and “have more amicus briefs” from the Justice Department. 

“If the DOJ was willing to file more amicus briefs and look for good vehicles to overrule a case … to broaden an establishment clause jurisprudence, I think that would be a helpful recommendation from this commission,” Barclay said. 

Waggoner, who works directly with those affected by religious liberty violations at ADF, offered five main recommendations to the committee. 

“The United States right now is the last Western country in the world to provide robust religious freedom and free speech protections,” she said. 

“One of the things that I hope that this commission recommends to the president is that he use the platform he has in the administration … to help Americans understand what the threat is and the goodness of practicing one’s faith.”

It is “critical” for Americans to be educated “on what their rights are,” Waggoner said. 

“For so long, we would see laws that were being passed that were blatant violations of constitutional rights,” but now “we see this vibe shift,” Waggoner said. “I would submit it’s a temporary one. It’s a change of power, not a change of heart. We need a change of heart.”

Waggoner suggested the government should “restore the conscience and religious freedom division at [the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services] and establish similar divisions within other department’s civil rights offices, and ensure equal access to federal funding is consistent with recent Supreme Court precedent.”

She highlighted that “all federal conscience laws” must be enforced and “recipients that violate those laws” need to be held accountable.

She also said the government should “end the financial targeting of people of faith.”

Authorities need to “ensure the IRS doesn’t discriminate against houses of worship or religious organizations and protect these entities from unjust penalties” and “guarantee that prior weaponization of financial regulations and markets against people of faith never, ever happens again,” she said. 

Waggoner also said the government should “protect people of faith from the regulatory state” by developing “rules that prevent future administrations from labeling as domestic terrorists Americans who simply purchased a religious text or spoke at a school board meeting.”

The U.S. should also “promote religious freedom on the international stage,” she said, working “in collaboration with the ambassador at large for international religious freedom” to “implement President Trump’s 2020 executive order on advancing international religious freedom to ensure that religious freedom remains a central priority of U.S. foreign policy.”

Trump, meanwhile, should “appoint judges with an established record of courage, character, and conviction who will apply the law without fear of public opinion,” Waggoner said. 

The commission was established on May 1 to “vigorously enforce the historic and robust protections for religious liberty,” according to Trump. 

Since its creation, a number of prominent Catholics have been appointed by the president including Barron, Cardinal Timothy Dolan, and Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone of San Francisco.

The committee will hold its next hearing on religious liberty in September.

Credit: Quisquilia/Shutterstock

CNA Staff, Jun 17, 2025 / 11:16 am (CNA).

A group of Orthodox churches has joined the Catholic bishops of Washington state in suing the government over its requirement that clergy either violate the seal of confession or face jail time.

The Orthodox Church in America, the Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of North America, and numerous other Orthodox jurisdictions on Monday sued dozens of public officials in the state challenging the constitutionality of its mandatory reporter law.

Signed by Gov. Bob Ferguson on May 2, the law goes into effect July 27 and adds clergy to Washington’s list of mandatory reporters for child abuse but explicitly denies them the “privileged communication” exemption granted to other professionals, such as nurses and therapists.

Priests who fail to report abuse learned in confession could face up to 364 days in jail and a $5,000 fine.

In a lawsuit filed last month in federal district court, the Catholic bishops of the state emphasized the Church’s commitment to child protection while defending the inviolability of the confessional seal.

The Orthodox leaders in their lawsuit similarly argued that Orthodox priests “have a strict religious duty to maintain the absolute confidentiality of what is disclosed in the sacrament of confession.”

“Violating this mandatory religious obligation is a canonical crime and a grave sin, with severe consequences for the offending priest, including removal from the priesthood,” the suit says.

The state’s law explicitly allows for numerous other exemptions for those otherwise required to report child abuse. Washington “is now the only state whose mandatory reporter law explicitly overrides the religious clergy-penitent privilege” while allowing the other exemptions, the lawsuit says.

The Orthodox leaders said they “do not object to alerting authorities when they have genuine concerns about children that they learn outside of confession.” Rather, they are demanding that the state “give the clergy-penitent privilege the constitutional protection it is due as a fundamental religious obligation.”

The lawsuit, filed in federal district court, claims the state’s law violates the First and 14th Amendments to the United States Constitution. It asks the court to block the law and declare it unconstitutional. 

Spokane Bishop Thomas Daly in a statement last month vowed that clergy would not break the seal of confession, even if it meant jail time.

“I want to assure you that your shepherds, bishops and priests, are committed to keeping the seal of confession — even to the point of going to jail,” Daly said in his message to the faithful. “The sacrament of penance is sacred and will remain that way in the Diocese of Spokane.”

The U.S. Department of Justice launched an investigation into the law on May 6, calling it an “anti-Catholic” measure.

U.S. Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon described it as a “legislative attack on the Catholic Church and its sacrament of confession,” arguing it singles out clergy by denying them privileges afforded to other professionals.