The Catholic Church in East St. James Parish

Pittsburgh Bishop-elect Mark Eckman / Credit: Courtesy of the Diocese of Pittsburgh

Vatican City, Jun 4, 2025 / 07:30 am (CNA).

Pope Leo XIV on Wednesday appointed Pittsburgh Auxiliary Bishop Mark Eckman to lead the northern U.S. diocese, with the bishop-elect succeeding Bishop David Zubik in that role.

Leo accepted Zubik’s resignation June 4. The outgoing bishop turned 75 — the usual age of retirement — last September. 

A Pittsburgh native, Zubik spent his entire priestly and episcopal career in the diocese, which serves nearly 628,000 Catholics in the southwestern corner of Pennsylvania.

Eckman, 66, was born in Pittsburgh on Feb. 9, 1959. He has been an auxiliary bishop of the diocese since 2022. 

His priestly formation took place at Saint Paul Seminary in East Carnegie, Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, and Saint Vincent Seminary in Latrobe.

After his ordination on May 11, 1985, Eckman mostly served in different roles in parishes and schools in South Hills, a southern suburb of Pittsburgh. 

He was episcopal vicar for clergy personnel from 2013 to 2020, and in 2021, became pastor of Resurrection Parish, after acting as administrator during its founding from the merger of two other parishes.

Eckman also served as a member on several boards, including the priest council, the U.S. bishops’ conference National Advisory Board, the permanent diaconate formation board, the seminary admissions board, and the priest candidates admissions board.

The prelate's episcopal motto is “To serve in faith and charity.” According to his biography on the webpage of the Diocese of Pittsburgh, the bishop likes to spend his spare time visiting extended family. He is also an avid nature photographer who likes to hike and ski.

The Diocese of Pittsburgh covers 3,754 square miles in five Pennsylvania counties. It has a population of around two million people.

Fom the Easter Vigil Mass in St Mary’s Pro-Cathedral, Dublin, April 2025. / Credit: John McElroy

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

The recent election of Pope Leo XIV has sparked new interest in Catholicism, with Google data showing a spike in searches on “how to become Catholic” shortly after the death of Pope Francis in April. Meanwhile, across many dioceses — and especially among young people — anecdotal reports indicate an upswing in people joining the Catholic Church in recent years.

While the Church’s requirements include some terminology that may be unfamiliar, the process has its roots in the early Church. If you’re looking to become Catholic in 2025, here’s a guide on what you should know — from the stages of spiritual preparation to important terms and historical background on what Christian initiation has looked like over the centuries.

What is OCIA? 

The Order of Christian Initiation of Adults or “OCIA” is the normative way to receive formation and prepare to enter the Catholic Church. This process was previously known as RCIA, the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults, until the U.S. bishops renamed it in 2021 to reflect a more accurate translation of the original Latin.

OCIA has four phases designed to intellectually form and spiritually prepare participants — who have attained the age of reason (generally around the age of 7) — to become Catholic.

What are the stages of OCIA?

Evangelization and Prechatechumenate: The inquirer learns of Christ and is drawn to the Catholic Church; he or she takes part in a period of searching and takes the first step toward becoming Catholic by conversing with a priest or parish director of Christian initiation to become a catechumen.

Catechumenate: Usually over the course of a year or less, a catechumen or candidate takes this time to learn more about the Catholic faith and what it means for his or her life. The Rite of Acceptance into the Order of Catechumens and the Rite of Election take place during this stage. 

Purification and Enlightenment: During Lent, a catechumen anticipates his or her initiation into the Catholic Church through prayer and learning. Initiation commonly takes place on the Easter Vigil, which is the culmination of the process where catechumens and candidates receive the sacraments of initiation (baptism, confirmation, and the Eucharist.)

Mystagogy: After being received into the Church, newly initiated Catholics continue to be formed in their faith during what the Church calls the “Period of Mystagogy.” This lasts until Pentecost, the feast 50 days after Easter in which the Church celebrates the birth of the Church, when the Holy Spirit descended on the disciples.

What is the ‘Rite of Election’?

The Rite of Election is the stage of Christian initiation before baptism. Catechumens gather with their sponsors and families, usually on the first Sunday of Lent.

During the Rite of Election ceremony, the local bishop asks the catechumens: “Do you wish to enter fully into the life of the Church through the sacraments of baptism, confirmation, and the Eucharist?” and they respond: “We do.” Catechumens write their names in the Book of the Elect, further confirming their desire to be baptized.

Through this rite, catechumens become known as “the elect.” Only the unbaptized partake in this rite, because those who are baptized are already known as God’s elect.

What’s the difference between a catechumen and a candidate? 

Catechumen: A catechumen is someone who is unbaptized and seeking to become Catholic. 

Candidate: A candidate is a baptized Christian seeking to come into full communion with the Catholic Church. 

What did Christian initiation look like in the early Church? 

While the Second Vatican Council renewed the OCIA process, Christian initiation goes back to the early Church.

In the early Church, before the fourth century, Christian initiation “would have been rather intense,” explained Timothy O’Malley, associate director for research at Notre Dame’s McGrath Institute for Church Life and academic director for the Notre Dame Center for Liturgy.

In its earliest form, Christian initiation would have lasted three years or more. 

“There was a real sense of required conversion: If you were an actor (involved with festivals related to the gods) or in the military, you needed to quit,” O’Malley told CNA. “Much catechesis involved moral formation in a new way of life, as well as introduction to the creed.”

OCIA now is largely based on the fourth- and fifth- century model, where catechumens would have prepared for the sacraments of initiation during Lent and entered the Church during the Easter Vigil.  

“During the 40 days, they would have fasted, prayed, and gone to regular sermons,” O’Malley said. “We have, for example, sermons on the creed and other dimensions of Scripture.” 

Once Christianity could be practiced publicly, “there were new options for initiating people,” O’Malley explained.

“Great public catechists and preachers,” such as Cyril of Jerusalem, John Chrysostom, and Ambrose of Milan, “gave public sermons encouraging people to enroll in the catechumenate leading up to Lent,” he added.

O’Malley noted that some of the reason for changes in the initiation process is that Christianity is not as unknown as it once was. 

“The complication today, of course, is that we live in a culture in which Christianity, while not necessarily totally well known, isn’t the novelty of the fourth and fifth centuries,” O’Malley said. “You can get the Lord’s Prayer online or look up the words of the creed on your own (both of these were handed on in secret as part of fourth and fifth century initiation).”

But historical Christian initiation is still connected to today in certain ways.

“But the challenge, in some sense, is always the same: How do you invite people to experience genuine conversion toward discipleship?” O’Malley said. “Christian conversion is not reducible to studying but involves a wholesale change of life: and that we possess in common with the Fathers of the Church.”

How do I join an OCIA program? 

To join an OCIA program, reach out to a local Catholic parish. If you have Catholic friends, they may be able to help you with this. A priest or parish leader of Christian initiation may want to meet with you to discuss your desire to become Catholic and help to guide you through the next steps of the process.

This year’s class of ordinandi at St. Joseph’s Seminary in Yonkers. Bishop Joseph Massa is seated in the center. / Credit: Theo Deluhery, Diocese of Camden

New York City, N.Y., Jun 4, 2025 / 06:00 am (CNA).

In the Archdiocese of New York, where ordinations to the priesthood have sharply declined in recent decades, a new initiative is seeking to rekindle vocations. Launched this spring, “Called By Name” is the archdiocese’s latest attempt to spark interest in the priesthood.

“Only two men applied to seminary last year to be diocesan priests,” Father George Sears, director of vocations for the archdiocese, told CNA. “As far as I know, that’s the lowest number that I’ve ever seen.”

During Mass on Good Shepherd Sunday last month, parishioners across the city were invited to fill out pamphlets or scan a QR code to nominate young men they believe might be called to the priesthood.

According to Sears, since May 11 more than 260 names have been submitted. Each nominee will receive a personal letter from Cardinal Timothy Dolan inviting him to dinner in August. Called By Name comes at a time of mounting concern for the future of the priesthood not only in New York but also across the nation.

Within the Archdiocese of New York, the number of priests has fallen by more than half since 1970, according to data published by the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate at Georgetown University. 

Fewer men are entering the seminary and many parishes now rely on one priest to serve communities once staffed by two or more. In the past 50 years, many parishes in New York have been forced to merge or close, leaving communities without a resident pastor.

Sears said he speculates that the reason for a waning interest in joining the priesthood is layered. “There’s a greater fear of making a long-term commitment,” he said. “Also the idea, somehow that fulfillment comes from a certain checklist, like, my life is fulfilled if I have the right career as opposed to happiness coming from a relationship based in love.”

He pointed to other factors including a growing secularism in society, the migration of Catholic families from the Northeast to other regions of the country, and the lingering impact of the Church’s sexual abuse crisis. 

“We’re still very much suffering from the results of the sexual abuse scandal,” Sears said. “I think we’re still in the shadow of that.”

Daniel Ogulnick, a Catholic man in his early 20s and a native New Yorker, first heard about the archdiocese’s initiative on Good Shepherd Sunday while sitting in the pews of St. Joseph’s Church in Manhattan. For him, “Called By Name” may not go far enough.

“The same way that God calls us as individuals, maybe the Church should approach it through parish priests really getting to know the young men in their parish and thinking about each one’s unique talents and gifts,” Ogulnick said. He said he believes a more personal approach may be more effective, especially for men like him who are actively discerning a vocation.

Sears doesn’t disagree, but he stressed the limits of the current situation in the diocese. “When we’re in a ‘vocations crisis’ ... you’re spread thinner,” he said, adding that “Called By Name” can help priests foster relationships with young men discerning the priesthood whom they might not otherwise reach. 

“The hope is that the priests who are involved in this can say to everyone, ‘Hey, come ... join us. Come and pray with us a little bit. Meet some other men who are also curious,’” Sears said. 

At St. Joseph’s Seminary in Yonkers, the final step of formation for men preparing to become diocesan priests in the Archdiocese of New York and the only major seminary still operating in the state, 18 men are currently enrolled, though not all are studying for diocesan priesthood. 

Bishop James Massa, who serves as the rector of St. Joseph, said that despite historically low enrollment numbers, the young men currently in seminary are distinctly committed. 

“The fact of the matter is that most men who enter stay and get ordained,” Massa said. “You walk into this seminary and many others, and you hear joy and laughter. It’s a sign of vitality.”

The rector cautions against romanticizing a time when high enrollment — once reaching 200 seminarians in Yonkers — was seen as the sole measure of success, though he acknowledges that increasing enrollment is still the goal. 

“If we romanticize the past too much, if we think of a seminary like a seminary in the 1950s, I’m not sure that’s what we want,” he said. “We do want more vocations, no question about it. But to return in a kind of romanticized fashion to that size of a seminary of the past I think is unrealistic.”

Massa said he believes that in today’s climate, a smaller, more intentional seminary environment allows for stronger formation. With St. Joseph’s expecting around 60 seminarians this fall, the demand for individualized attention is already considerable.

Among those discerning the priesthood is Zachary Adamcik, a 17-year-old high school senior from Port Jervis, New York. He has applied to Seton Hall University and plans to begin his seminary formation at St. Andrew’s Hall in Newark before eventually moving on to St. Joseph’s. His goal is to eventually become a parish priest for the Archdiocese of New York.

“I’ve been around so many good priests in my life,” Adamcik said. “Parish life is a very beautiful life. You know, to baptize some kid one day and also to, sadly, you know, bury another. Just the huge diversity of ministry. It’s very appealing to me.”

Sears said parishioners are still encouraged to submit nominations to “Called By Name” well into the summer and nominees can expect to receive a personal invite from the cardinal to one of several dinners and events hosted by the archdiocese before fall arrives in New York.

The Illinois state capitol in Springfield, where assisted suicide legislation stalled after passing in the House on May 29, 2025. / Credit: E Fehrenbacher/Shutterstock

CNA Staff, Jun 3, 2025 / 16:20 pm (CNA).

A bill to legalize physician-assisted suicide in Illinois was not called for a vote in the Senate before the Legislature adjourned on June 1, effectively halting its progress for the session amid ardent opposition from leading Catholic voices in the state.

The bill, which passed in the House at the end of May, would have made it legal for physicians to give “qualified” terminally ill patients life-ending drugs. As the bill failed to move through the General Assembly, physican-asisted suicide remains criminal in Illinois.

Physician-assisted suicide, called medical aid in dying or “MAID” by proponents, is legal in 10 states as well as the nation’s capital. Oregon was the first to legalize the practice in 1994, though an injunction delayed its implementation until 1997.

Under the proposed Illinois legislation, death certificates would show the terminal illness as the cause of death, not suicide.

The bill was included as part of legislation originally intended to address food and sanitation.

Cardinal Blase Cupich, archbishop of Chicago, criticized the bill in a May 30 statement.

“I speak to this topic not only as a religious leader but also as one who has seen a parent die from a debilitating illness,” Cupich said, recalling his father’s death.

Cupich urged Illinois to promote “compassionate care,” not assisted suicide.

“My father was kept comfortable and was cherished until his natural death,” he said. 

Cupich noted that Catholic teaching supports palliative care (a form of care that focuses on improving quality of life, including pain management, for patients with terminal illnesses) “so long as the goal is not to end life.” 

“There is a way to both honor the dignity of human life and provide compassionate care to those experiencing life-ending illness,” Cupich said. “Surely the Illinois Legislature should explore those options before making suicide one of the avenues available to the ill and distressed.”  

State Rep. Adam Niemerg, a Catholic legislator who opposed the bill when it was on the floor in the House, said the practice “does not respect the Gospel.” 

Niemerg urged Illinois legislators to vote against the bill, saying: “We must protect the vulnerable, support the suffering, and uphold the dignity of every human life.”

“It tells the sick, the elderly, the disabled, and the vulnerable that their lives are no longer worth living — that when they face this despair, the best we can offer is a prescription for death,” he said of assisted suicide. “That is not compassion, that is abandonment.”

Niemerg also raised concerns that the law “opens the door to real abuse.”

“We’ve seen where this becomes practice, the patients are denied lifesaving treatment and offered lethal drugs instead,” he said.

Mental health concerns

In his statement, Cupich questioned the move “to normalize suicide as a solution to life’s challenges” amid a culture already contending with a mental health crisis. 

Suicide is the second-leading cause of death for U.S. teens and young adults, Cupich noted, citing a 2022 study from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 

He urged politicians to consider “the impact on impressionable young people of legalizing suicide in any form.”

“Suicide contagion is a real risk to these young people after exposure to suicide,” he continued, citing the National Institutes of Health.

“Add to that the ready availability of firearms in the U.S., and this is a tragedy we do not need to compound,” he said.

Cupich also raised concerns about suicide rates increasing if assisted suicide legislation were implemented.

“While the bill sets parameters for assisted suicide, the data from places where assisted suicide is available are clear,” Cupich said. “Rates of all suicide went up after the passage of such legislation.”

“These rates are already unacceptably high, and proposed cutbacks in medical care funding will add to the burden faced by those contemplating suicide,” Cupich said.

A victims’ advocacy group is pressuring New York Gov. Kathy Hochul to force insurers to pay abuse claims. / Credit: lev radin/Shutterstock

CNA Staff, Jun 3, 2025 / 15:50 pm (CNA).

A victim advocacy group launched an ad campaign urging New York Gov. Kathy Hochul to force insurance companies to pay millions of dollars in abuse claims, slamming the governor for allegedly “stand[ing] with her big insurance buddies” instead of abuse victims.

The Coalition for Just and Compassionate Compensation, which started in 2023 to pressure insurance companies to pay abuse claims under the state’s Child Victims Act, began running ads in upstate New York markets this week.

“Who turns their back on over 14,000 survivors of child sex abuse? Gov. Kathy Hochul,” an ad states, claiming the Democratic governor “stands with her big insurance buddies [who are] denying responsibility while donating to her campaign.”

The ad features headlines from news stories of abuse scandals, including one that references the Diocese of Buffalo, which earlier this year said it would pay out a massive $150 million sum as part of a settlement with victims of clergy sexual abuse there. 

“Call [Hochul’s] office. Demand she enforce the law. Make big insurance pay, not the survivors they failed,” the advertisement says. 

Passed in 2019, New York’s Child Victims Act extended the statute of limitations involving child sex abuse cases so that victims can file civil lawsuits against both abusers and institutions until the victims themselves are 55 years old. 

It is not just victim advocates who have called for insurers to pay abuse claims in both New York and elsewhere. 

New York archbishop Cardinal Timothy Dolan last year said the archdiocese was launching a lawsuit against its longtime insurer in response to an alleged attempt by the company “to evade their legal and moral contractual obligation” to pay out financial claims to sex abuse victims. 

The Archdiocese of Baltimore similarly sued numerous insurers last year over their alleged failure to pay for abuse claims stretching back several decades.

And earlier this year the Diocese of Trenton, New Jersey, sued its insurance provider over allegations that the company was refusing to pay out sexual abuse claims under that state’s own Child Victims Act.

Neither the New York victims’ group nor the governor’s office responded to requests for comment on the campaign.

A view of the Opera House in the port zone of Sydney, Australia. / Credit: Benh LIEU SONG vía Flickr (CC BY-SA 4.0).

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jun 3, 2025 / 15:20 pm (CNA).

A revival of the Catholic faith is spreading across Australia and beyond, according to Sydney Archbishop Anthony Fisher. 

The Archdiocese of Sydney welcomed a record 384 catechumens and candidates in March, marking a 30% increase from the previous year. In addition, the archdiocese has ordained a bishop, along with two deacons and a priest, just in the past month.

Following a record number of conversions this past Easter, Fisher declared the Church in Sydney to be in a “second spring.” The archbishop attributed the historic growth among the faithful to the Holy Spirit in a speech given over the weekend to Catholic business leaders, according to a report in Catholic Weekly.

“These aren’t just people raised Catholic who are returning — but individuals from diverse backgrounds who are encountering the faith for the first time and finding something deeply compelling,” he said, observing “a genuine hunger for spiritual meaning in an increasingly fragmented world.”

Fisher delivered his speech at a May 30 event with the theme “Signs of Hope in This Jubilee Year,” organized by the Archdiocese of Sydney and sponsored by Catholic Super, a retirement savings fund organization. 

Reflecting on the increasing Mass attendance rates across the archdiocese, Fisher joked: “I might have to get a bigger cathedral.”

Apart from parish life, Fisher pointed to the archdiocese’s Catholic schools, noting that enrollments are “the highest they’ve ever been, and keep growing.”

This phenomenon is not unique to Sydney alone, he noted, citing dioceses across the U.S. that saw similar booms in adult conversions this year.

Among them was the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, which welcomed more than 5,500 new Catholics this past Easter, its highest number of Easter converts in 10 years.

The bishop also pointed to the U.K., which also experienced its highest surge of entrants into the faith this year. France also saw a record 45% increase in new converts at Easter, with young adults making up the majority of the country’s 10,384 adult conversions. 

While Fisher credits the Holy Spirit for the current upward trend of religious conversion, he also noted factors in everyday life that he sees as driving forces, such as the experience of the COVID pandemic. 

Some, he added, were “wowed by the beauty and sacredness of the liturgy, art, or music” or drawn in by a sense of community. 

“It might be too early to declare winter now past, but flowers have appeared in our land,” he concluded. “There are signs of hope.”

Food and Drug Administration sign at its headquarters in Washington, D.C. / Credit: JHVEPhoto/Shutterstock

CNA Staff, Jun 3, 2025 / 14:20 pm (CNA).

A top official at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) confirmed on Monday that the organization will conduct a review of the abortion drug mifepristone following several recent studies challenging the safety of the drug.

FDA Commissioner Marty Makary said he is “committed” to conducting the review in a June 2 letter addressed to Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley, who has been an outspoken advocate for reviewing abortion pill safety regulations. 

“As with all drugs, FDA continues to closely monitor the post-marketing safety data on mifepristone for the medical termination of early pregnancy,” Makary wrote.

Makary noted that he is “committed to conducting a review of mifepristone and working with the professional career scientists at the agency who review this data.” 

The letter follows a pledge by U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert Kennedy Jr., who said in a hearing last month that he had instructed Makary to do a “complete review” of the abortion pill following a report showing that more than 1 in 10 women experience adverse side effects from chemical abortions.   

The first-of-its-kind study, published by the Ethics and Public Policy Center on April 28, delved into public health insurance records, finding that about 11% of women suffer at least one “serious adverse event” within 45 days of taking mifepristone for an abortion.

Of 865,727 patients between 2017 and 2023, the study found that more than 4.7% were forced to visit an emergency room related to the abortion, more than 3.3% suffered hemorrhaging, and more than 1.3% got an infection. 

Thousands were hospitalized, more than 1,000 needed blood transfusions, and hundreds suffered from sepsis. Nearly 2,000 had a different life-threatening adverse event.

Kristan Hawkins, president of Students for Life of American and Students for Life Action, celebrated the confirmation of the review, saying: “It’s in writing.” 

“Time to review, reinstate basic safety protocols to save women, and pull from the market to save hundreds of thousands of lives!” she said in a post on X.

Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America’s Director of Legal Affairs and Policy Counsel Katie Glenn Daniel celebrated the confirmation, sharing her gratitude “for Sen. Hawley’s leadership to secure the FDA’s commitment to fully review the safety of abortion drugs.” 

“We’re encouraged to see the FDA reexamine the data under new leadership after the Biden administration recklessly fueled an unregulated drug market by stripping away in-person dispensing requirements,” Glenn Daniel told CNA. 

Glenn Daniel highlighted a recent peer-reviewed study by the Charlotte Lozier Institute that challenged the abortion industry’s claim that medication abortion is “safer than Tylenol.”

“While the abortion industry and Democrat politicians push the debunked claim that these drugs are ‘safer than Tylenol,’ growing evidence shows they’re far more dangerous than advertised,” she said.  

The Charlotte Lozier Institute published its peer-reviewed article in the journal BioTech challenging the “heavily relied upon talking point” for the abortion industry that abortion drugs are safer than Tylenol.

“Even in the corporate media, reports have surfaced of at least three women dying in recent years after drug-induced abortions,” Glenn Daniel added.

A young woman from Georgia named Amber Thurman died at age 28 in 2022 after being hospitalized due to an infection after she took abortion pills. Tissue from her deceased babies — unborn twins — had remained in her uterus, causing an infection. When she went to the emergency room, the doctors failed to quickly operate on her, and she died.

While some news outlets blamed the state’s protections for unborn children, doctors with the American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists maintained that side effects from the abortion pill and medical malpractice caused her death.

Notably, all pro-life states permit abortions in life-threatening cases and allow doctors to treat women with pregnancy emergencies according to their medical judgment, according to the Charlotte Lozier Institute. 

A chemical abortion takes place via a two-pill regimen. The first pill, mifepristone, kills an unborn child by blocking the hormone progesterone, cutting off the child’s supply of oxygen and nutrients. The second pill, misoprostol, is taken between 24 to 48 hours after mifepristone to induce contractions and expel the child’s body. 

Chemical abortions account for about half of the abortions in the United States every year. Progesterone, a naturally occurring hormone, can be used to reverse the effects of mifepristone if taken soon after.

“We know the abortion pill starves babies to death. We know 11% of women experience complications from the use of this pill,” Live Action said last week. “The question is how [is] this poison pill is still on the market?”

Professor Robert P. George speaks at the Heritage Foundation event commemorating the 100th anniversary of Pierce v. Society of Sisters on May 30, 2025. / Credit: Ronald Walters

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jun 3, 2025 / 11:01 am (CNA).

June 1 marked the 100th anniversary of Pierce v. Society of Sisters, the landmark Supreme Court case that preserved Catholic education in America and established the foundation for present-day legal discourse on parental rights and school choice.

Decided on June 1, 1925, Pierce v. Society of Sisters blocked a proposed amendment to an Oregon statute that would have eliminated the rights of parents to enroll their children in private schools. The amendment, challenged by the Sisters of the Holy Names of Jesus and Mary, who ran parochial schools in Oregon, primarily targeted those schools and was notably backed by organizations such as the Ku Klux Klan.

The court’s natural-law based opinion, written by Associate Justice James Clark McReynolds, famously stated: “The child is not the mere creature of the state.”

“The natural law-rooted conception of the relationship between child and parent … is deeply rooted in our nation’s constitutional order,” preeminent legal scholar and moral philosopher Robert P. George said in a speech at a commemorative event sponsored by the Heritage Foundation in Washington, D.C., last week.

“[Pierce v. Society of Sisters] illustrates the fight to protect and preserve parents’ fundamental rights to direct their children’s upbringing and education,” George said, which “is nothing new when it comes to the American story.”

In his address, George referred to a current case, Mahmoud v. Taylor, where Catholic, Orthodox, and Muslim parents are suing the Montgomery County, Maryland, Board of Education for not allowing them to opt their children out of course material that promotes homosexuality, transgenderism, and other elements of radical gender ideology.

The parents argue that the curriculum, which includes reading material for children as young as 3 and 4 years old, violates their First Amendment right to direct the religious upbringing of their children.

“It is in cases like Mahmoud,” George continued, “that we see the real reason that progressives are so keen for organized institutions of the state, at least when they are dominated by ideological allies of social and cultural progressivism, to share, and eventually override, as Montgomery County sought to do by banning the opt-outs, parental authority with actual parents.”

Ultimately, George said he believes the Supreme Court will side with parents in Mahmoud v. Taylor “because the United States has a long tradition of articulating and upholding the natural law account of parental rights within our constitutional order,” as illustrated in the precedent set by Pierce.

“As we confront the challenges of today, fights such as that against Montgomery County’s LGBTQ indoctrination efforts, we must be courageous defenders of the truth about the rights parents legitimately maintain and exercise over their children,” George said. “These are not rights conferred by any merely human authority … They are natural rights.”

The Heritage Foundation event, titled “Pierce at 100: The Legacy of Pierce v. Society of Sisters,” also included panel discussions on legal issues regarding parental rights and school choice as well as on the state of private education. The panels featured legal experts including Eric Baxter, vice president and senior counsel for the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, who argued on the parents’ behalf in the Mahmoud case. A decision is expected in late June or early July.

“Interestingly,” Baxter pointed out during the panel discussion, “Pierce arose in a period of high Catholic immigration,” when the Ku Klux Klan pushed for legislation to make Catholic immigrants “uniform.”

“You have that very same dynamic here,” he said, noting that many of the parents in the Mahmoud case are immigrants who came to the U.S. seeking freedom of religion, only to be “told that [they] have to adopt this very extreme view [of transgender ideology] in the United States.”

Archbishop Samuel Aquila of Denver. / Credit: Denver Catholic

Denver, Colo., Jun 2, 2025 / 18:27 pm (CNA).

Every Sunday afternoon since Oct. 7, 2023, a peaceful group has gathered for a vigil walk in downtown Boulder, Colorado, to remember the Israeli hostages held by the terrorist group Hamas. 

This past Sunday, as they marched past local shops and restaurants in the city’s outdoor Pearl Street Mall, eight participants in the group’s activity were firebombed in what the FBI is investigating as an act of terrorism.

In the wake of the June 1 attack, the archbishop of Denver, Samuel Aquila, called for an end to anti-Jewish violence and urged the faithful to join together in prayer for the victims.

“I’m deeply saddened this evening to hear of the attack in Boulder, especially as it seems our Jewish brothers and sisters were targeted,” Aquila said in a statement released June 1. 

A suspect used a makeshift flamethrower and threw an incendiary device into the crowd, yelling “Free Palestine” during the attack, according to law enforcement.

Four women and four men ages 52 to 88 were taken to the hospital with burns and other injuries after the attack. 

“This type of violence must come to an end as it only fuels hatred,” Aquila said. 

The attack closely followed the killing of two Israeli embassy employees — a young couple soon to be engaged — in Washington, D.C., just weeks ago. 

The Boulder attack suspect, identified as Mohamed Sabry Soliman, 45, was booked in the Boulder County Jail on multiple felony charges, according to the City of Boulder. 

An FBI affidavit said Soliman confessed to the attack, telling the police he had planned it for a year and that he wanted to “kill all Zionist people and wished they were all dead.” 

After being taken into custody, Soliman reportedly told the police he would do it again. 

In addition to the two Molotov cocktails that Soliman threw into the crowd, investigators found more than a dozen unlit Molotov cocktails as well as weed sprayer filled with gasoline, according to the FBI affidavit. 

An Egyptian citizen, Soliman entered the country on a B2 visa in August 2022 and filed for asylum the following month. He remained in the country even though his visa expired in February 2023, according to Tricia McLaughlin, assistant secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Director Kash Patel described what happened as a “targeted terrorist attack” and said the federal agency is “fully investigating” it as such.

In a post on Truth Social, President Donald Trump pledged to prosecute the perpetrator “to the fullest extent of the law.” 

“My heart goes out to the victims of this terrible tragedy and the great people of Boulder, Colorado!” Trump continued. 

The mayor of Boulder, Aaron Brockett, decried the attack in a statement, saying that the city would “stand strong together.”

“Know that the Jewish community has my full support and the support of the entire Boulder community,” Brockett said. 

“Please join me in praying for everyone affected by this horrific attack,” Aquila said. “We ask the Lord to bring comfort, healing, and peace in the face of such hatred.” 

“May we listen to the voice of God, who calls us to love one another!” Aquila concluded.

Vermont State House, Montpellier, Vermont. / Credit: Nick Beer/Shutterstock

CNA Staff, Jun 2, 2025 / 17:07 pm (CNA).

Under pressure from a lawsuit challenging a 2023 law restricting life-affirming pregnancy centers, Vermont Gov. Phil Scott signed a bill repealing those restrictions, allowing the centers to continue providing medical services, including abortion pill reversal.

Vermont — one of the most pro-abortion states in the country — has no laws restricting abortion. But the 2023 law created a category of “limited-services pregnancy centers,” defined as such because they do not provide or refer clients for abortions.

The state threatened the centers with fines up to $10,000 for advertising in a “misleading” way, though the law did not specify what the state meant by the word “misleading.” 

These clinics could be fined for advertising their existence and for bringing awareness to chemical abortion reversals. 

The law alleged that some clinics falsely advertised that they offered abortion or abortion counseling when they did not. It also prohibited any advertisements that the state considered to be “untrue or clearly designed to mislead the public about the nature of services provided,” including chemical abortion pill reversal. 

Many life-affirming clinics promote chemical abortion reversal, in which the naturally occurring hormone progesterone can be taken to reverse the effects of the first abortion drug mifepristone. 

In July 2023 the National Institute of Family and Life Advocates (NIFLA) and other pregnancy resource centers sued state officials for restricting the centers’ freedom of speech and provision of services. 

“The state of Vermont has backed away from attacking the work of pro-life pregnancy centers,” said NIFLA Vice President of Legal Affairs Anne O’Connor. “Pregnancy centers are no longer under direct threat from the law and pro-abortion lobby in Vermont.” 

While O’Connor “celebrates” the change, she added that the group “stands ready” to defend pro-life pregnancy centers “if in the future the state again decides to unconstitutionally” restrict their work.

State officials have targeted life-affirming pregnancy centers across the country, including in California and New York, for advertising abortion pill reversal.  

Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) — the legal nonprofit defending the life-affirming pregnancy centers — announced the dismissal of the case in a press release last week. 

ADF Legal Counsel Julia Payne Koon applauded the change to the “discriminatory law that unlawfully targeted faith-based pregnancy centers and restricted their ability to speak and act according to their conscience.” 

“Pregnancy centers must be free to serve and empower women and their families by offering the support they need without fear of unjust government punishment,” Payne Koon said. 

“Women who become unexpectedly pregnant should know they have life-affirming options available to them, from emotional support to practical resources, which is exactly what our clients offer,” she said.