Sacred Heart Catholic Church

A portrait of a young St. John Henry Newman hangs in Cathedral High School, part of the Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter, in Houston. / Credit: Amira Abuzeid/CNA

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Aug 1, 2025 / 09:15 am (CNA).

English saint and convert from Anglicanism to Catholicism John Henry Newman was approved for the title “doctor of the Church” on July 31 — one of the highest honors a Catholic can receive from the Holy See.

Theologians, historians, priests, and other Catholic scholars expressed excitement about the announcement, citing Newman’s contributions to theology, philosophy, and education in the 19th century when the Church was combating the rise of modernism and Enlightenment-era rationalism.

Michael Sirilla, a professor of theology at Franciscan University, explained that “the broad sense of doctor in Latin — it just means ‘teacher,’” noting that the Holy See bestows the title on the “great and notable teachers in the Church.”

Newman, he noted, “did not write pure theology” in the sense of authoring theological treatises but provided significant contributions “refuting theological errors” of his time. The English saint, he said, “is a suitable doctor for the modern period of the Church.”

“Without question, Newman is either the best or the second-best writer of theology in the English language — second only perhaps to St. Thomas More,” Sirilla told CNA.

“He’s a champion,” Sirilla added. “He’s one of the heroes against early forms of modernism.”

Patrick Reilly, the founder of The Cardinal Newman Society, expressed joy in the announcement. His organization promotes strong and faithful Catholic education, a major priority of Newman’s during his life, highlighted in the saint’s book “The Idea of a University.”

“He is truly a most important saint for modern times: his fight against relativism and weak faith, his response to persecution of Catholics, and especially his vision for faithful Catholic education championed by The Cardinal Newman Society,” Reilly said in a post on LinkedIn.

Susan Hanssen, a history professor at the University of Dallas (a Catholic institution), noted that Newman’s writings and his conversion had a major impact on the English-speaking world in the 1800s. His conversion marked “a major cultural event in the Protestant English-speaking world,” she told CNA.

“It launched waves of English Protestant conversions to the Roman Catholic Church that have come to [be] called the second and third spring of English Catholicism,” she said. “This steady stream of Protestants coming ‘home’ to Rome continues to this day.”

Father Dwight Longenecker, a former Anglican priest who converted to Catholicism, echoed that sentiment.

“His progress through Anglicanism to the Catholic faith was an adventure that blazed the trail for many to follow,” he told CNA. “As such, his status as a doctor of the Church will advance his influence for non-Catholic Christians who are seeking the fullness of the faith in the Catholic Church.”

Scott Hahn, a former Presbyterian minister who converted to Catholicism and leads the St. Paul Center for Biblical Theology, told CNA that Newman “has always been an inspiration to me” as well.

“He was a convert who told his story — a transparent account of the process of his struggles and discoveries,” Hahn said. “Newman was tireless in the apostolate at a time when most media were limited in range. He carried on correspondence with hundreds of people struggling along the way to Rome. He wrote with sympathy and understanding, but also with clarity and firmness.”

“When you do this work faithfully, as he did, you will be misunderstood,” he added. “People will question your motives. You will suffer. Newman chose to continue doing it anyway. He stands as a model and intercessor for anyone working in the apostolate, and presumably that means all of us! And he is still evangelizing. His books still change lives, as they did in the 19th century, when he inspired thousands of conversions.”

Jennifer Bryson — a fellow at the Ethics & Public Policy Center who recently translated German Catholic author Ida Friederike Görres’ book “John Henry Newman: A Life Sacrificed” — noted that Newman’s reach also extended substantially beyond the English-speaking world and in the aftermath of World War II was a particular source of inspiration for German Catholics.

Germans like Görres, who Bryson said were “coming out of a horror and breakdown of society,” saw Newman as “somebody who had understood the challenges of the modern world and remained Catholic and saw a Catholic way forward in the modern world.”

Noting Newman’s writings that challenged anti-Catholic philosophies of his day, Bryson said Newman was an example of what it meant “to be Catholic and remain Catholic in a world that was driving off ideological cliffs.”

Newman, who was born in London in 1801, spent his early adult life as an evangelical Anglican priest before shifting to a more traditional high-church Anglicanism. As an Anglican, he helped combat Enlightenment-era philosophies and liberalizing trends within Protestantism. He was a well-respected figure among Anglicans during that time.

As Newman delved deeper into the history of Christianity, he finally converted to Catholicism in 1845. In the year he converted, he wrote, “to be deep in history is to cease to be a Protestant.”

Newman was ordained a Catholic priest in 1847 and Pope Leo XIII made him a cardinal in 1879. He continued his theological writings throughout his life. During his time as an Anglican and a Catholic, Newman wrote about 40 books and more than 20,000 letters.

Sirilla said one of Newman’s most important contributions in his arguments with Protestants was his explanation of the development of doctrine in Catholicism. Sirilla said doctrinal development understood properly “preserves [tradition] and builds upon it” rather than adheres to the warped view that “the Church can teach something contrary to what it has taught in the past.”

“[It’s a] development of doctrine based on what has been revealed by God,” Sirilla said.

In the same year he converted, Newman published a nearly 450-page book titled “An Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine.” In it, he defended Catholic doctrines against Protestant attacks, including purgatory and original sin.

“Modern Catholicism is nothing else but simply the legitimate growth and complement, that is, the natural and necessary development, of the doctrine of the early Church, and … its divine authority is included in the divinity of Christianity,” Newman wrote.

Tom Nash, a staff apologist at Catholic Answers, told CNA that Newman’s “great contributions to our understanding of development of doctrine” is one of the first things that comes to his mind when thinking about the saint.

“Newman shows that authentic doctrinal development necessarily must be organic,” Nash said. “That is, if a change occurs, the basic structure of an organism or system remains.”

Another major contribution from Newman was his refutation of Enlightenment-era rationalism, which Sirilla described as a “view that man’s reason is a higher authority than God’s revelation.”

“Man’s reason must be … informed by God’s revelation,” Sirilla said.

Newman wrote numerous works against Enlightenment-era concepts, particularly the writings of Scottish philosopher David Hume, who died 25 years before Newman was born. In one letter, Newman wrote critically of Hume’s assertion that the belief in miracles is irrational.

“[Miracles] are presented to us, not as unconnected and unmeaning occurrences, but as holding a place in an extensive plan of divine government, completing the moral system, connecting man and his maker, and introducing him to the means of securing his happiness in another and eternal state of being,” he wrote. “That such is the professed object of the body of Christian miracles can hardly be denied.”

Pope Francis canonized Newman in 2019. Pope Leo XIV’s July 31 announcement will make Newman the 38th doctor of the Church.

This story was updated Aug. 1, 2025, at 11:44 a.m. ET with the comments from Scott Hahn.

Bishop James Conley of Lincoln, Nebraska, in St. Peter’s Square, a day before the canonization Mass of St. John Henry Newman, Oct. 12, 2019. / Credit: Daniel Ibanez/CNA

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jul 31, 2025 / 17:18 pm (CNA).

Catholic bishops across the nation are reacting to the “joyful” news that Pope Leo XIV has approved St. John Henry Newman to be declared the 38th doctor of the universal Church.

The July 31 decision to give the title to the 19th-century Catholic convert and English saint was confirmed during Leo’s morning meeting with Cardinal Marcello Semeraro, prefect of the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints.

“Six years ago, Pope Francis canonized English cardinal John Henry Newman,” the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops noted in a post on X. “Now, he will join the other 37 men and women who have received the title of doctor of the Church.”

A doctor of the Church is someone who has significantly “advanced the knowledge of God through their writing on theology, spirituality, mysticism, or through their defense of the faith in the face of heresy and schism,” the USCCB explained. 

In recent years, the country’s bishops have shown strong support for extending this recognition to Newman. In 2023, America’s bishops voted overwhelmingly to endorse a petition brought by the Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales asking the Vatican to name Newman a doctor of the Church. 

Now, with the news that Newman’s elevation to doctor of the Church has officially been approved, bishops across the nation are sharing their enthusiasm for the designation.

Bishop James Conley of Lincoln, Nebraska, called Newman his “favorite saint,” saying that “I even chose his motto as my own. ‘Heart speaks to heart.’”

“Terrific news out of the Vatican this morning!” Bishop Robert Barron of Winona-Rochester, Minnesota, wrote immediately following the announcement, subsequently adding: “St. John Henry Newman was many things — apologist, theologian, educator, poet — but through it all, he was a lover of the truth.” Barron invited the faithful to learn about the saint’s “extraordinary life and witness.”

“The announcement that Pope Leo XIV will declare St. John Henry Newman a doctor of the Church is truly joyful news,” Bishop Michael Burbidge of Arlington, Virginia, also wrote in a post to social media. 

St. John Henry Newman’s “courageous pursuit of truth led him to enter the Catholic Church and helped deepen the Church’s understanding of how doctrine develops while remaining faithful to the Gospel handed on by the apostles and their successors, the bishops,” Burbidge said. “His witness of pastoral service and charity now serves as a beacon for all those seeking Christ and his peace in their hearts and lives.”

“In his Apologia Pro Vita Sua, he writes: ‘I am not ashamed to be a seeker after truth and to have changed my mind when I found that I was in error.’”

Burbidge added: “May we all follow his example of humility in pursuit of the God who wishes only our eternal happiness.”

Credit: J.J. Gouin/Shutterstock

CNA Staff, Jul 31, 2025 / 16:35 pm (CNA).

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission is investigating potential “unfair or deceptive trade practices” regarding transgender surgeries and drugs.

The launch of the federal inquiry is designed to “gauge the harms consumers may be experiencing” from “false or unsupported claims” about transgender treatment, according to a press release. The inquiry focuses on affected minors but is also open to adults who have been affected.

The agency’s investigation comes after President Donald Trump pledged to end federal support for transition drugs and surgeries in an executive order he issued at the outset of his administration this year.

The Federal Trade Commission, a federal agency that promotes marketplace competition and consumer education, will investigate whether practitioners have violated a long-standing law against deception in the marketplace.

The investigation falls under the purview of the agency as the primary enforcer of the Federal Trade Commission Act of 1914, a federal law that, among other things, prohibits deception and false advertising in the marketplace. The agency will investigate if practitioners have gone against Sections 5 and 12 of the act, which ban “unfair or deceptive acts” and false advertising, respectively. 

The commission “is uniquely positioned to investigate this potentially unlawful activity,” the agency stated, noting that the organization “has a long history of bringing enforcement actions” in health care. 

The agency “encourages members of the public to comment on any issues or concerns that are relevant to the FTC’s consideration of this topic, including by submitting any written data, advertisements, social media posts, disclosures, or empirical research,” the press release read. 

U.S. Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Arkansas, commended the agency “for investigating the horrific scheme to target minors with barbaric gender procedures.” 

“Everyone involved — including the ‘doctors’ — should face massive liability for the damage they did to vulnerable children,” Cotton said in a post on X.

This is not the commission’s first look at the transgender issue. Earlier this month, the agency hosted a workshop in Washington, D.C., to investigate “unfair or deceptive trade practices” within transgender treatment. 

The workshop brought in doctors, medical ethicists, detransitioners and their parents, and whistleblowers to share their testimonies. 

Andrew Ferguson, a Catholic Virginian who chairs the commission, told detransitioners and survivors that the agency “hears you, we hear all of you, and we want to understand how the law is being broken,” according to a report by Daily Wire. 

At the workshop, the U.S. Justice Department’s Chief of Staff Chad Mizelle announced that the department had issued more than 20 subpoenas against medical clinics as part of an investigation for fraud and false statements, National Review reported. 

The deadline for the public to submit comments is Sept. 26. Comments will be posted to Regulations.gov, while another forum is available for confidential comments.

null / Credit: Ulf Wittrock/Shutterstock

CNA Staff, Jul 31, 2025 / 15:05 pm (CNA).

A lawsuit filed in Massachusetts alleges that a Catholic student in a medical education program was dismissed from the school after she objected to having been forced to witness an abortion as part of her clinical studies.

The lawsuit, filed earlier this month in state court, alleges that Alina Thopurathu was taking part in Springfield College’s physician assistant program when, during clinical rotations, she was scheduled to see a dilation and evacuation, or D&E, a procedure commonly used for later-term abortions.

Thopurathu, identified in the filing as a practicing Catholic, wrote in evaluations that she had assumed the procedure was intended for a miscarriage and that she was “overwhelmed” at witnessing an actual abortion.

“In the future, I believe students should be asked if they are comfortable with seeing a D&E rather than being assigned the procedure without patient information,” she wrote in the evaluation.

The lawsuit says that after this write-up, faculty evaluations of Thopurathu “changed tone,” with advisers accusing her of negative performance in the program, though she had received praise beforehand.

Eventually her academic advisers presented her with a “remediation contract” placing her under academic probation, according to the suit; the school also designated her work in the OB-GYN rotation as “incomplete.” 

Thopurathu said she was “coerced” to sign the contract, the terms of which allegedly went beyond what was required in the student handbook. The school eventually dismissed her from the program, citing her alleged negative performance.

The suit claims that following her negative response to being forced to witness an abortion, the college “sought to dismiss [Thopurathu] for having personal values incompatible with those of the [school].” 

The lawsuit seeks monetary damages from the school, including $500,000 for “mental anguish, emotional distress,” and other injuries. 

Springfield College did not immediately return a request for comment on the suit on Thursday. 

The suit has drawn national support from pro-life advocates. Students for Life of America spokesman Michael Allers told the College Fix this week that the group “stands with all Catholics in the academic space that are discriminated against by the secular elite.”

Cardinal Vincent Nichols of Westminster speaks with a police officer outside Westminster Cathedral in London, Nov. 9, 2021. / Credit: Mazur/cbcew.org.uk

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jul 31, 2025 / 11:41 am (CNA).

Cardinal Vincent Nichols, president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales, (CBCEW) said he is “delighted and thrilled” that Pope Leo XIV has announced that he will declare St. John Henry Newman to be a doctor of the Church.

Joining Nichols in a statement from the conference following Thursday’s announcement by the Holy See Press Office, Archbishop Bernard Longley of Birmingham said of Newman that “it is remarkable that his writings, first as an Anglican and then as a Roman Catholic, but considered as one entire corpus of written work, have led to him being declared a doctor of the Church.” 

“This recognition that the writings of St. John Henry Newman are a true expression of the faith of the Church is of huge encouragement to all who appreciate not only his great learning but also his heroic sanctity in following the call of God in his journey of faith,” Nichols added.

Longley, who also serves as vice president of the CBCEW, said he is “immensely grateful to Pope Leo for declaring St. John Henry Newman as a doctor of the Church” and pointed out that Newman is “the third Englishman to be afforded this title,” after St. Bede the Venerable and St. Anselm of Canterbury.

Nichols noted that the request to recognize Newman as a doctor of the Church had been before the Holy See “for some time” and has been widely supported across the globe, especially by the bishops of the Church in England.

“This moment brings back vivid memories of thepapal visit in 2010 of Pope Benedict XVI to these countries when he declared the beatification of John Henry Newman,” Nichols continued. “That moment now reaches its fulfillment and gives great joy to all who strive to follow Christ today.”

The announcement by the Holy See Press Office stated that the decision was made during a July 31 meeting between Pope Leo and the Vatican’s prefect of the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints, Cardinal Marcello Sameraro.

Oratorian Father Ignatius Harrison, co-actor of the Newman cause, joined in the celebration of the announcement, declaring: “The fathers and brothers of the Birmingham Oratory give praise and thanks to God that the Holy Father Pope Leo has today confirmed that the title ‘doctor of the Church’ will soon be bestowed on St. John Henry.” 

Harrison emphasized that “Newman’s wisdom and spiritual vision will now be of even greater relevance to the universal Church and indeed to all people of goodwill who seek God’s truth.”

Gavin Ashenden, a former Anglican bishop who was received into the Catholic Church in 2019, reacted with similar ebullience to the announcement, writing in a post on X: “This is the most wonderful news.”

A recent analysis of a controversial study confirmed that children raised by their intact, biological families fare better than children who were raised by same-sex attracted parents. / Credit: Kulniz/Shutterstock

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jul 31, 2025 / 10:06 am (CNA).

A recent “multiverse analysis” by Cornell sociologists Cristobal Young and Erin Cumberworth demonstrated the accuracy of a controversial 2012 study that showed children of gay parents do worse than children who grow up with a married mother and father.

In a chapter of their book titled “Multiverse Analysis: Computational Methods for Robust Results,” Young and Cumberworth applied their multiverse analysis — by which they examined all the possible ways results of a study may produce varying outcomes depending on methodological choices — to a 2012 study by Mark Regnerus, a University of Texas at Austin sociology professor and president of the Austin Institute for the Study of Family and Culture.

In his study, “How Different Are the Adult Children of Parents Who Have Same-Sex Relationships?” Regnerus found that the children of same-sex-attracted parents were worse off socio-developmentally than those raised by their intact, biological families.

Young and Cumberworth noted that Regnerus’ article “is one of the most hotly-contested studies in 21st-century sociology.”

In a July 13 article in the Public Discourse, Father Paul Sullins, a senior research associate at the Ruth Institute, described the findings as “new vindication” for Regnerus, who Sullins said had faced an almost immediate “firestorm of ideological denunciation, personal vituperation, and political pressure” following the release of his study.

“We were surprised by the robustness of the Regnerus finding,” Young and Cumberworth wrote in their conclusion. “Prior to examining the data directly, we accepted the conclusions written by the critics and expected that a comprehensive multiverse analysis would drive their point home in a powerfully conclusive way.”

Regnerus expressed gratitude to Young and Cumberworth for their analysis of his study and its critics, telling CNA in an email statement: “I am not at all surprised by its results. What the multiverse analysis has done is demonstrate that unpopular research is not the same as erroneous research.”

He continued: “Unfortunately, the scholarly world has not seen such a wide and comprehensive look at outcomes in this domain since then, even while data quality and sample sizes continue to increase. The topic remains rife with intimidation.”

“This new analysis completely vindicates Dr. Regnerus,” Jennifer Roback Morse, founder and president of the Ruth Institute, told CNA. “In my opinion, however, he never needed ‘vindication.’ There was never anything wrong with his study. It was the best and most thorough of its type, during an era that was jammed with junk science.”

“The studies that claimed ‘no difference’ between same-sex parents and opposite-sex parents made sweeping universal claims based on unrepresentative samples,” she continued. “Dr. Regnerus collected his own data that was by far the most representative dataset anyone had used up until that time. He also survived multiple ideologically-motivated ‘investigations.’ In fact, the University of Texas ultimately promoted him to full professor.”

Ultimately, said Morse, who founded the Ruth Institute in 2008 as a means to defend traditional Christian sexual ethics, “the saddest thing about this whole ideologically distorted debate is that ordinary people are making life-altering decisions based on junk science.”

“Ordinary women are concluding that having children with another woman will be the same sort of experience as having children with a husband. When they figure out from experience that this is not really the case, it is too late to change course,” she said, adding: “They already have a child who really truly does need a father, which she is in no position to provide.”

Attorneys general from 16 states wrote a letter urging Congress to take action against abortion shield laws. / Credit: Traci L. Clever/Shutterstock

CNA Staff, Jul 31, 2025 / 09:00 am (CNA).

State attorneys general across the country are banding together to oppose “abortion shield laws” that they say enable abortionists to bypass pro-life state laws.

A July 29 letter to Congress signed by 16 Republican attorneys general described the shield laws as “blatant attempts to interfere with states’ ability to enforce criminal laws within their borders.”

At least 18 states and Washington, D.C., have enacted abortion shield laws, which vary in kind but are all designed to protect abortionists against pro-life laws in other states. Generally, states with abortion shield laws will refuse to extradite abortionists and won’t enforce judgments or penalties from another state.

Recently, abortion shield laws have clashed with pro-life laws that protect unborn children from chemical abortions in Texas, where a judge ordered a New York abortion provider to stop prescribing abortion pills to Texas residents. Because of New York’s shield laws, the abortion provider dodged the lawsuit and the $100,000 fine.

Addressed to Senate Majority Leader John Thune, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, House Speaker Mike Johnson, and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, the letter, signed by attorneys general of Arkansas, Alabama, Florida, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, and other pro-life states, said that shield laws “raise serious constitutional concerns.”

In the letter, the attorneys general noted that since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade and returned abortion legislation to the states, “different states passed laws purporting to ‘shield’ abortion providers from liability and prosecution for performing or aiding in abortions in other states.”

“By encouraging medical professionals in pro-abortion states to violate pro-life states’ abortion laws, shield laws are antithetical to the spirit of federalism and the Dobbs decision by not allowing each state to regulate abortion as it sees fit,” the letter read.

Kelsey Pritchard, political communications director for Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, praised the signees for “spreading awareness on unconstitutional shield laws.”

“These laws violate the state sovereignty of the 22 states that protect life at 12 weeks or sooner by protecting abortion pill mills over women and girls in this country,” Pritchard told CNA. “Blue states have no right to shield abortion drug distributors when they break the laws, harm women, and kill unborn children in pro-life states.”

Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin said his state and others “have faced a problem of abortion pills such as mifepristone, which are taken to induce chemical abortions, being shipped into our state illegally.”

“The law is very clear on this issue, and regardless of how one feels about the law, it is vital that the law be upheld,” Griffin said in a post on X.

Kim Davis (at right) is pictured here in 2015, when she served as clerk of the courts in Rowan County, Kentucky. Citing a sincere religious objection, Davis refused to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples in defiance of a U.S. Supreme Court ruling. / Credit: Ty Wright/Getty Images

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jul 31, 2025 / 08:00 am (CNA).

A former county clerk in Kentucky who made national headlines in 2015 for refusing to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples is again asking the United States Supreme Court to hear her case 10 years later.

Kim Davis, who was the Rowan County clerk from 2015 through 2019, has petitioned the country’s highest court to reconsider the 2015 Obergefell v. Hodges ruling, which legalized same-sex civil marriages nationally. 

That year, the court’s 5-4 decision found that same-sex couples have a constitutional right to legally recognized marriages under the 14th Amendment’s equal protection clause.

Davis’ filing also asks the court to consider her request to use a First Amendment defense against civil lawsuits that stemmed from her refusal to issue those marriage licenses. She was found liable for violating the constitutional rights of same-sex couples whose marriage licenses she refused to certify and ordered to pay them hundreds of thousands of dollars.

At the time, Davis had requested a religious accommodation that would have allowed her to continue her job without issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples. Gov. Matt Bevin, who assumed office in December of that year, signed an executive order accommodating Davis, which allowed clerks to remove their names from marriage licenses issued by the office.

Still, because Davis was denied civil immunity and denied the ability to use a First Amendment defense in court, she remains liable for those damages. She is represented in court by Liberty Counsel, a Christian legal nonprofit.

Liberty Counsel Chairman Mat Staver said in a statement that Davis’ ongoing case shows why the country’s Supreme Court “should overturn the wrongly decided … opinion” on same-sex marriage. He argued that the ruling “threatens the religious liberty of Americans who believe that marriage is a sacred union between one man and one woman.” 

“A person cannot stand before the court utterly defenseless while facing claims of emotional distress for her views on marriage,” Staver said.

“Yet, that is the result of Obergefell, which led these courts to strip Davis of any personal First Amendment defense,” he continued. “Obergefell cannot just push the First Amendment aside to punish individuals for their beliefs about marriage. The First Amendment precludes making the choice between your faith and your livelihood. The high court now has the opportunity to finally overturn this egregious opinion from 2015.”

The lawsuit argues that in the same way the First Amendment “provides a defense to private business owners … for refusing to violate their religious convictions” regarding same-sex civil marriages, the Supreme Court should recognize it “likewise provides an individual a defense to application of state laws that require her to speak a message concerning same-sex marriage that is inconsistent with her religious beliefs.”

It adds that there is “no sound constitutional basis” to treat a public official acting in his or her individual capacity any differently than a nonpublic official: “To do so would mean government officials surrender certain constitutional rights at their swearing-in ceremonies. That cannot be right.”

Although same-sex marriage has been the law of the land for the past decade, there have been some recent efforts to push back on the ruling. 

Just this year, lawmakers in at least five states introduced resolutions that called on the court to overturn its same-sex marriage ruling. Two resolutions passed their state’s lower chamber but did not get through their state’s senate. The other three failed earlier in the process. Lawmakers in at least four states introduced proposals to create a new category of a “covenant marriage,” which is reserved for one man and one woman.

A May Gallup poll found that 68% of Americans support same-sex civil marriages. This is down from a height of 71% in 2022 and 2023 after there was a slight decrease two years in a row. Only 41% of Republicans support same-sex civil marriages, which is down from highs of 55% in 2021 and 2022.

Catholic actor David Henrie in the new docuseries “Seeking Beauty.” / Credit: EWTN Studios

CNA Staff, Jul 31, 2025 / 06:00 am (CNA).

EWTN Studios and Catholic actor David Henrie, known for his role as Justin Russo on Disney’s “Wizards of Waverly Place,” have partnered to bring a first-of-its-kind adventure documentary series that explores culture, architecture, food, art, and music that aims to point viewers to the beautiful — and ultimately to the divine.

“Seeking Beauty” is scheduled to be released in December.

The docuseries follows Henrie’s journey into the heart of Italy to explore what makes Italian culture one of the most beautiful in the world. It not only looks at the physical beauty of the country but also the spiritual richness of it as well. 

In a recent interview with EWTN News President Montse Alvarado, Henrie shared that he’s a big fan of travel shows and always wanted to take part in one, but one where “you kind of flip the script. Where it starts with what you don’t expect.”

“We want an experience, right? So we put the format on its head. We have someone who’s not an expert — which is me — inviting the audience to go on a journey with me and have fun,” he explained. “So, we go all over Italy and we meet with the experts, and I’m sitting down asking questions that maybe you at home would want to ask if you were sitting in front of this person and as I’m blown away, hopefully, you’ll be blown away, too, because we had some beautiful experiences.”

The actor emphasized that the common theme throughout the series is “that beauty has a capital B — that beauty is ultimately the language of the divine and a reflection of God.”

One moment that stood out for Henrie while filming the series was getting to watch an old Caravaggio painting be restored. He recalled being shown by artists doing the restoration some of the mistakes made in the painting that are only noticeable up close. Henrie called this experience “humanizing.”

“When you think of great artists before you, they’re almost so high that it’s like unreachable … and to get to see their works up close with a restorer was so cool to go, ‘Oh, this person was human. He completely painted over what he did. There was something he tried that didn’t work at all,’” he shared. “That was really cool to me to learn how human these artists were and that they were struggling with the same things that I struggle with, just in a different medium.”

Henrie’s production company, Novo Inspire Studios, aims to create entertaining, timeless, and meaningful content that the whole family can enjoy. The company’s work was recently nominated by the Television Critics Association Awards for Outstanding Achievement in Family Programming, which Henrie called a “massive honor.”

EWTN Studios was recently launched by EWTN as part of its new organizational restructuring, contininuing the media organization’s legacy of creating impactful content in the Catholic sphere in a way that reflects the changing nature of media and evolving technologies.

null / Credit: Vinokurov Kirill/Shutterstock

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jul 30, 2025 / 17:54 pm (CNA).

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has released a report showing widespread fraud in its permanent residence program for unaccompanied minors, which has led to a backlog in the issuance of visas to foreign-born priests and religious, whose visas fall under the same category.

According to a report published on July 24, USCIS has identified widespread age and identity fraud among applicants to the Special Immigrant Juvenile (SIJ) visa program intended for unaccompanied immigrants under 21 years old.

USCIS revealed that of the 300,000 SIJ applicants it reviewed from 2013 to 2024, most SIJ petitioners were over the age of 18. In 2024 alone, 52% of applicants were 18, 19, and 20 years old. One-third of all SIJ applicants were males over the age of 18. The vast majority of applicants, 73.6%, originated from El Salvador, Guatemala, or Honduras.

Typically, SIJ petitioners must submit evidence that they were “declared dependent on a state juvenile court” or that they had been committed in some way to a state agency or court-appointed entity or individual.

To obtain consent for SIJ classification, they must provide the “factual reasons why the state court found the alien was abused, neglected, or abandoned by one or both parents, and why it is in the alien’s best interests to remain in the United States,” along with “evidence that a state court either granted or recognized some form of relief from parental maltreatment.” 

Applicants committed fraud in various ways, including falsifying their age, name, and country of citizenship on official documents. In some cases, over-18 applicants to the SIJ program entered the U.S. without inspection and “filed court state petitions requesting other adult aliens who also recently entered the United States without inspection be appointed their guardians so they can file SIJ petitions.”

How does this impact foreign-born priests and religious?

News of widespread fraud in the juvenile program comes months after it was revealed that an influx of minor visa applicants resulted in an unprecedented backlog in the employment-based fourth preference (EB-4) visa category — the same category used by foreign-born priests and religious. 

“Demand for SIJ immigrant visas creates significant pressure on the EB-4 category,” the USCIS report states. “These immigrant visas are numerically limited and allocated based on country of origin. Other special immigrants rely on visas from the EB-4 category. This results in significant wait times for other special immigrants in the United States.” 

The report noted “ministers of religion” are among the other special immigrants who draw visas from the EB-4 category.

According to data trends in the report regarding wait times for EB-4 visas, increasing demand in the category began to escalate in 2016. By March 2025 — two years after the Biden administration added juveniles to the category — the wait time for the category extended to five years and seven months.

Each year, Congress decides how many green cards — visas that grant permanent residence in the U.S. — may be made available per year. These green cards are divided into categories based on various factors, including employment or relationship status to U.S. citizens. 

“The process to obtain permanent residence status, to get permanent residency, which a couple of years ago could probably be done in somewhere between 12 to 24 months, now is going to take significantly longer,” Miguel Naranjo, director of religious immigration services at the Catholic Legal Immigration Network, told CNA in March. 

“There’s a huge demand in the EB-4 category,” Naranjo continued, saying that religious workers had not been previously affected by the surge in unaccompanied minors until the past year and a half, after the State Department designated the whole category as “subject to backlog” due to the sheer rise in demand across the category.

The rise came after the Biden administration’s addition of minors to the category in March 2023, leading to the program distributing all available green cards in the category well before the end of the 2023-2024 fiscal year. More green cards will not be made available till the start of the next 2025-2026 fiscal year in October.

Due to the backlog, many priests and religious who are trying to remain in the U.S. to continue their ministries are in danger of being forced to leave the country before their green card application has been processed for at least one year. 

Typically, religious workers enter the U.S. on R-1 visas, which have a five-year limit. In the meantime, religious workers hoping to stay in the U.S. apply for visas in the EB-4 category. However, the influx of minor applicants has caused a major backlog in the category, meaning that many religious workers will be forced to leave the country when their R-1 visas expire. 

“It makes me feel sad and betrayed,” said Father Paschal Anionye, a priest from the Diocese of Warri in Nigeria who works in New York, in reaction to the USCIS findings, “especially as my hopes — and those of many Nigerians and Africans in general — to live safely and to study and serve in a multicultural, multiethnic, and diverse environment are crushed.”

Anionye further described the situation faced by foreign-born priests and religious as “disheartening,” given the needs of Catholic dioceses across the U.S.

The Nigerian priest, who is in the U.S. on an R-1 visa issued in April 2023, is planning to file for his green card after his visa is renewed in October.

He told CNA: “I’ll feel terrible, horrified, and disappointed” should he be forced to return to Nigeria before his green card application is processed, “as I came to the U.S. not only to seek a safe environment from Christian persecution in Nigeria ... but with a genuine intention to serve as a missionary, as has always been my desire from my early days in the seminary.”

He further expressed fear of putting his mother and siblings at higher risk, saying his return would not only make him a target but also would renew threats against them. “I lost a cousin to kidnappers in 2015 and continue to carry trauma related to safety concerns,” he added. 

Criminality among SIJ applicants

Troubling data in the report also identified a subset of 18,829 of the older applicants to the program were “engaged in significant criminality,” with records showing 36,920 law enforcement encounters among these individuals, indicating multiple arrests for some.

According to the report, at least 120 petitioners were arrested for murder, and 200 approved petitioners convicted of sex offenses and required to register in the National Sex Offender Registry. Other SIJ petitioners were arrested for additional grave offenses including attempted murder, assault, rape, child molestation, possession and distribution of child sex abuse material, domestic violence, carjacking, and drug trafficking. 

Over 500 SIJ applicants approved for SIJ classification since 2013 were known or suspected members of violent gangs.

In some instances, the report notes, these gang members, who obtained lawful permanent residence status as SIJs, were “wanted by foreign law enforcement authorities for murders they allegedly committed before entering the U.S. without inspection and filed [SIJ petitions].” 

Although the number is relatively small, the report also identified known or suspected terrorists filing SIJ petitions, including “an alien from Tajikistan suspected of plotting an Islamic State (IS) terrorist attack in the United States.”

“Criminal aliens are infiltrating the U.S. through a program meant to protect abused, neglected, or abandoned alien children,” said USCIS spokesman Matthew J. Tragesser, who criticized “activist” judges and the Biden administration’s open border policies.

Congress has introduced bipartisan legislation to help keep religious workers, including Catholic priests and religious, in the country by extending their visas instead of sending them back to their home countries amid the backlog in the EB-4 category.