The Catholic Church in East St. James Parish

Catholic school students won the right to play sports and participate in other public school activities in the State College Area School District after a victory in federal court on June 10, 2025. / Credit: matimix/Shutterstock

CNA Staff, Jun 12, 2025 / 10:59 am (CNA).

Catholic families in Pennsylvania won a victory at federal court this week when a local school district agreed to allow students of parochial schools to participate in district sporting events and other activities.

The Thomas More Society, a public interest law firm based in Chicago, said in a press release that multiple Catholic families had won the “major victory” in U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania after bringing the suit in July 2023.

The State College Area School District had originally said that parochial school students were not allowed to participate in district extracurricular activities, though it allowed home-schooled and charter school students to take part in those events.

The Catholic school families had sued the district arguing that the policy violated their constitutional rights to freedom of religion and equal protection.

In December 2023, U.S. District Judge Matthew Brann allowed the challenge to proceed, agreeing that the rule appeared to violate the defendants’ constitutional rights.

In a filing on June 10, the Catholic families and the school district agreed to a consent order stipulating that the Catholic students “are generally entitled to the same generally available benefits as those provided to home-schooled and charter school students” in the district.

The district said it agreed to “make available to parochial school students … the same extracurricular and co-curricular activities (including athletics) and educational programs offered to home-schooled students and charter school students.”

Thomas Breth, special counsel for the Thomas More Society, said in the press release that school districts in Pennsylvania “cannot discriminate against students and exclude them from activities simply because they choose to attend a religious-based school.”

“Religious discrimination has no place in our society, but especially in our public schools,” Breth said.

He argued that the order “strengthens the ability of parents to prioritize their family’s religious beliefs when making educational decisions without being forced to sacrifice educational and athletic opportunities that are offered to other students and paid for with their tax dollars.”

In an interview with CNA, the lawyer said that though the consent order does not apply statewide, it will likely help to ensure that other districts do not exclude parochial students from district activities.

“I fully expect that many, many school districts are going to fall in line and decide not to litigate the issue,” he said.

The district ended up paying $150,000 in legal fees to the plaintiffs, Breth noted. He urged parents of Catholic school students to consider pressing their districts to allow their children access to extracurricular activities.

“I’ve already been in contact with parents in other school districts,” he added. “They’re in similar situations. We’re going to push hard in other districts if they don’t recognize they have a constitutional obligation to let parochial school students participate in the same manner as charter and home-schooled students.”

“Hopefully, it’s not going to take litigation. Hopefully, it will take letters,” he said. “Hopefully, the district will do what’s right for the kids, because ultimately that’s what this is about.”

Fertility rose at the end of the Depression and the end of World War II with the Baby Boom, to more than 3.5 births for every woman by 1960 — then plummeted immediately thereafter. / Credit: Glenn|Wikimedia|CC BY-SA 2.0

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jun 12, 2025 / 07:00 am (CNA).

The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) issued a report that surveyed reproductive-age adults and recommended “reproductive autonomy” as a solution to global fertility rate decline, a solution that received pushback from pro-family experts.

The UNFPA, along with YouGov, surveyed more than 14,000 adults in 14 countries: the United States, India, Germany, Hungary, Sweden, Italy, Mexico, Brazil, Thailand, South Korea, Indonesia, Nigeria, Morocco, and South Africa.

The report, “The Real Fertility Crisis: The Pursuit of Reproductive Agency in a Changing World,” found that about 39% of people in the survey who want children said financial limitations affected their family size, with many citing a lack of job security, housing limitations, and child care options as reasons. About 19% of respondents said fears about the future contribute to their expectation of having fewer children. Almost one-third reported they or their partner had an unexpected pregnancy.

About 45% of respondents were not sure whether they would have their desired number of children or did not answer the question. Only 37% responded that they expect to have the amount of children they want.

Nearly one-fourth of respondents said they were unable to fulfill the desire of having a child at a time they desired. 

The dissatisfaction and uncertainty reported by many adults about the number of children they will have comes as “global fertility rates are declining,” the report acknowledged. Fertility has drastically declined in the United States and other parts of the Western world for more than half of a century and has also trended downward in other parts of the world in recent decades.

“One in 4 people currently live in a country where the population size is estimated to have already peaked,” it explained. “The result will be societies as we have never seen them before: communities with larger proportions of older persons, smaller shares of young people, and, possibly, smaller workforces.”

UNFPA blames lack of ‘reproductive autonomy,’ prompting pushback

Although the UNFPA recognized concerns about an aging population caused by the lack of children, the report concluded “the real crisis” the findings uncovered is a lack of “reproductive autonomy,” noting that people “are unable to realize their fertility aspirations,” with some having more children than desired and others having fewer.

“We find that when we ask the right questions, we can see both the problem and solution clearly,” the report stated. “The answer lies in reproductive agency, a person’s ability to make free and informed choices about sex, contraception, and starting a family — if, when, and with whom they want.”

To increase “reproductive agency,” the UNFPA report endorsed more sex education in schools, stronger access to contraceptives and abortion, adoptions by homosexual couples, access to assisted reproductive technology, and the dismantling of traditional gender norms.

“There are real risks to treating fertility rates as a faucet to be turned on or off,” the report stated.

The report also criticized campaigns that encourage people to start families. It claimed that tax credits for parents “can offer critical help” but can also stigmatize people who get the benefits and that incentives for larger or smaller families can “lead to constraints on reproductive choice by increasing men’s and women’s vulnerability to coercion from partners, families, or in-laws.”

“What is the alternative to policies seeking to influence fertility rates? Policies that expressly — in letter and spirit — affirm the rights of individual women and men to make their own choices,” the report claimed.

The U.N.’s purported solutions to the fertility crisis have faced pushback. 

Rebecca Oas, the director of research for the Center for Family and Human Rights (C-Fam), told CNA that “low fertility is an important and timely topic to address” but said the report is, “like all of [the UNFPA] reports, packaged as a way to promote UNFPA’s typical priorities and values.”

Oas, whose organization promotes pro-life and pro-family values at the global scale, said that UNFPA’s “north star” is “sexual and reproductive health and rights,” including abortion. She said the report ignored the main argument against abortion: opposition to “the taking of innocent human life.”

According to Oas, the report’s arguments were mostly “presented with a presumptive antipathy toward anything that might point toward traditional values, gender norms, and understandings about the family.”

“UNFPA’s definition of what constitutes human flourishing involves the redefinition of the family, the micromanagement of care within the home by the state, and legal, government-subsidized access to contraception and abortion, and for this reason, it falls well short of the ideal,” she said.

Catherine Pakaluk, an economics professor at The Catholic University of America and author of the book “Hannah’s Children: Women Quietly Defying the Birth Dearth,” bluntly called UNFPA’s conclusions “laughably pathetic.”

“I don’t think they really have a clue why people aren’t choosing children,” Pakaluk told CNA regarding the UNFPA. “... The difficulty is not controlling your fertility — we know how to do that.”

She criticized the report for besmirching traditional family and gender norms, noting that many parts of Europe have done that and “we just don’t see that there’s a rebound in birth rates.” 

She said communities that tend to have high birth rates are ones based on “traditional and biblical religion — people who are incredibly religious.”

“People who believe that God loves children … and wants to bless you with children … seem to have a lot more kids,” Pakaluk added.

Although Pakaluk said some people may delay children for financial reasons, she said this also cannot explain lower fertility rates because “as countries have gotten wealthier, people have had fewer children.” She argued it is more about “lifestyle affordability, not cash flow affordability.”

“They are not able to prioritize children in that basket of things they are pursuing,” Pakaluk said.

“I think we can make a difference,” she added. “... The place to make a difference is to work on helping people see the value of children.”

Father Michael Herlihey, OFM Cap, one of three chaplains serving pilgrims along the Drexel Route, blesses children following the opening Mass of the 2025 Eucharistic Pilgrimage in Indianpolis on May 18, 2025. / Credit: Jeffrey Bruno

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jun 12, 2025 / 06:00 am (CNA).

While locals are joining in on parts of the 2025 National Eucharisitc Pilgrimage as it winds its way across the country, eight young Catholics have dedicated the last three weeks to traveling the entire route with the Eucharist as “Perpetual Pilgrims” — and accompanying them are seven chaplains who take turns to serve as their spiritual guides.

Maria Benes, director of pilgrims for the National Eucharistic Congress, told CNA that there are five priests and two religious brothers who have been rotating through the pilgrimage. Three started with the pilgrims and four are expected to end the trek in Los Angeles on June 22. 

The priest chaplains are Capuchin Franciscan Fathers Christopher Iwancio and Michael Herlihey, and Franciscan Friars of the Renewal Fathers Malachy Joseph Napier, Justin Jesúsmarie Alarcón, and Lawrence Joshua Johnson. The religious brothers are Brothers Jan Cyril Vanek and Damiano Mary Pio, both of the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal.

“As a lot of them have told me, the nature of pilgrimage is very Franciscan with the flexibility and adaptability of the adventure with Jesus,” Benes said.

The chaplains were chosen based on a number of criteria. Some reached out directly because they “felt called” and some were were asked if they wished to join based on organizers’ judgment that they would be “a good fit.” From there, pilgrimage staff, the chaplains, and their superiors organized the schedule.

The chaplains are “all stationed in different places” but have traveled to be a part of the experience, Benes said. “In fact, a few are stationed in other countries.”

As they travel, the chaplains take on a number of jobs. “The first part is the pastoral care of the team,” Benes said, adding that some helped lead a February retreat in preparation and a “day of recollection” before the pilgrimage started in Indianapolis.

On the road, the chaplains hear confessions, give homilies, provide reflections, and evangelize. They also help with music during many of the processions, leading worship in both English and Spanish. 

“Then the day-to-day of praying with the team, spiritual protection prayers for the team, and any pastoral concerns that come up. Then the second part of their role is to help bring the Eucharist to the public,” Benes said. 

CNA spoke to the two Franciscan Capuchins priests — Iwancio and Herlihey — about their experiences so far and their time with the pilgrims.  

Father Christopher Iwancio, OFM Cap

Iwancio helped the pilgrims through the retreat prior to their departure. To help calm their nerves he told them that “even the disciples had the same nervousness.” 

“They had uncertainty. Even when Jesus ascended to heaven, there was still a little uncertainty for the disciples. There’s something to be ruptured into that encounter experience, but there’s also the practicality, because you have to balance both the spiritual with the practical,” Iwancio told CNA.

Iwancio, who is based in Los Angeles, said the retreat was a time of “getting spiritually prepared,” going over “logistics,” and preparing for “situations that they’ve never seen.”

Logistical matters consisted of “getting the van prepared and reorganizing the trailer.” The pilgrims make four to five stops a day and travel with a van that Iwancio said is “kind of a portable chapel, too.”

“There’s a tabernacle attached to the van and it serves as a compartment where the Blessed Sacrament can be reserved and that can be opened up and the monstrance fits on top. There’s prayer cards for along the way.” The group organized “the shelves with all the liturgical items.” 

“The trailer is almost like a sacristy,” Iwancio said. 

Iwancio also helped the pilgrims with the spiritual direction they needed prior to leaving by encouraging them to go to confession and to take time away when they need a break while on the journey. “They need to take care of themselves,” he said.

Iwancio said it is important to balance “being present with Jesus” and the operational matters. “It’s kind of balancing that Martha and Mary approach for the experience,” he said. 

“They’re a nice great group of young people and they have a great variety of skill sets because each brings a different gift to the experience … It’s a nice mix of gifts and talents,” Iwancio said.

Iwancio will join the group toward the end of the pilgrimage. “I’m really looking forward to this idea of … bringing hope during the jubilee year. It’s going to be a really awesome experience,” he said.

Father Michael Herlihey, OFM Cap

Father Michael Herlihey, the vocation director of Capuchin Franciscans at the Province of St. Augustine, told CNA that “it was important” for him “to spend time with Jesus in the Eucharist as a first-year priest.”

“I was just inspired by ... [the] eight young adults. They were willing to step away from their lives, their jobs, their families, friends, cities for a period of five weeks to be Eucharistic evangelizers, if you will,” Herlihey said.

Herlihey also led the initial retreat for the pilgrims and then spent the first 10 days of the pilgrimage with them. He reflected on the week and half of traveling saying that “the intentionality that comes to the pilgrims forming a family … was very powerful. In fact, I think it was one of the strongest parts.”

During his time on the pilgrimage, Herlihey witnessed the Eucharist travel in a boat, a helicopter, and a van. “It’s kind of cool to think of a helicopter being a temporary tabernacle” or a boat “being a temporary vessel carrying Jesus.”

Herlihey shared some of his favorite and most memorable moments. 

“I literally got to cross the Mississippi River in a fishing boat with Jesus and see the crowds waiting on the shore for him to arrive. I was pinching myself going, ‘This will be in my homily for decades,’” he joked.

“I understand now, Jesus getting into the boat, going away from the crowds, out into the silence of the water to pray.”

Herlihey also shared some challenges the pilgrims have faced on the journey. They have run into anti-Catholic protestors that started out in small numbers but now travel in groups of around 50 people.

Before the pilgrimage began, Herlihey held a Mass for the pilgrims. He reflected that “in praying over the homily, the Holy Spirit asked … ‘to embrace the cross.’” Herlihey said “to be honest, I didn’t want that to be the homily.” He said he wanted to give an “exciting talk,” but “the Holy Spirit did not budge” — he said he felt the Holy Spirit saying, “You’re going to talk about embracing the cross and the importance of that.”

After the Mass, Herlihey was pleasantly surprised when multiple pilgrims shared that “embracing the cross and embracing death” had been topics they were praying about. 

“Now, hindsight is 20-20,” Herlihey said. “Here we are … weeks later, and they’re experiencing crosses. They’re carrying their cross amidst a white martyrdom right now with all the counter-protesters. It’s just like … ‘Holy Spirit, you knew what you were doing.’”

Another difficult part that Herlihey said “pained” him was that they “couldn’t go to more places” with the Eucharist. “I would love to go to every one of the parishioners’ houses, their workplaces, their schools, everywhere. And then I had a thought,” Herlihey said.

“We receive Jesus into our bodies in the Mass, and so we all become tabernacles. And those tabernacles carry Jesus as the helicopter does, as the boat does, as the van does, as the monstrance does. Our bodies.”

Herlihey said the Lord is saying, “I want to give my body and blood to people because I want my body and blood to travel to every office, school, and household. I’m going to do it by making people my tabernacles.”

One thing Herlihey said he hopes people know is that the priests and pilgrims are “not bringing one sacrament,” they are “bringing two.” Herlihey shared he heard confessions for three hours in the procession line as he walked through Iowa. 

The chaplains will continue to bring the sacraments to people across Texas, New Mexico, and California as the pilgrimage comes to a conclusion over the next two weeks. 

Blackrock College in Dublin, Ireland, where extensive abuse took place over decades, according to a documentary that led to the June 2025 report by the National Board for Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church in Ireland. / Credit: Sarah777, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jun 11, 2025 / 18:18 pm (CNA).

Allegations of sexual abuse of minors within the Catholic Church in Ireland significantly spiked this past year, a newly published report has found.

The total number of allegations rose by more than 50% from 252 in 2023-2024 to 385 in 2024-2025, according to the latest report by the National Board for Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church in Ireland. 

The figure represents the highest number since the organization began publishing annual reports on child sexual abuse in the Irish Church in 2009. 

The majority of these allegations, 73%, date to the period between 1960 and 1989, with only two cases relating to the period after 2000. Forty-seven cases had no time frame attributed to them. 

According to the report, which covers allegations from April 1, 2024, to March 31, 2025, the increase in allegations took place predominantly in September 2024 immediately following the announcement of a government-sponsored investigation examining historical abuse in religious-run day and boarding schools in Ireland. 

“These events in September 2024 appear to have given individuals renewed strength to tell of their experiences,” National Board CEO Aidan Gordon said in a June 10 press release. 

According to the report, 291 of the allegations received by the National Board were categorized as sexual abuse as the primary complaint. The report records 55 additional allegations of physical abuse, four boundary violations, one count of neglect, one emotional abuse, one bullying, and 32 cases where the alleged abuse was not categorized.

The report indicates that 385 allegations were made against 376 people, including 318 male religious, 39 diocesan priests, 16 female religious, and three males of unknown affiliation.

Of the 39 diocesan priests accused of abuse, 20 (64%) are deceased, three are laicized, three are in prison, four are out of ministry, four are under a management plan, one remains in active ministry, and four are of unknown status.

Of the remaining accused, 221 of them are deceased, five are laicized, five are in active ministry, 31 are in prison, 21 are under a management plan, 12 have left the Church, 17 are out of ministry, and 22 are of unknown status.

The National Board received 287 requests for advice in relation to safeguarding children from abuse within the Church in 2024-2025.

Background

The announcement of the Irish government’s September 2024 investigation came after the government-backed scoping inquiry, published in March 2023.

The inquiry was initiated in the aftermath of a 2022 radio documentary called “Blackrock Boys,” which revealed extensive abuse at the Spiritan-run Blackrock College, a boys’ boarding and day school in Dublin. 

The scoping inquiry revealed that 2,395 allegations of abuse had been made in 308 schools between 1927 and 2013, including extensive accounts of sexual abuse, rape, and sexual assault.

Bishop Kevin Doran of Elphin described the scoping inquiry as “a tragedy” at the time, lamenting not only the sheer number of allegations in the report but also “that so many of them had to carry their experience alone for so many years before they felt sufficiently free to tell someone else.”

null / Credit: Sergey Hramov/Shutterstock

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jun 11, 2025 / 17:12 pm (CNA).

Results of a new Gallup poll reveal an increase in the number of Americans who support policies that prioritize sex over gender identity.

The polling firm surveyed 1,003 U.S. adults from May 1–18, asking them a number of questions related to sex and gender with a margin of sampling error of 4%. When compared with the 2021 and 2023 Gallup research surveys on sex and gender, the new study revealed an increase in the number of Americans who prefer using sex as an identifier rather than “gender identity.”

The most recent poll called “Values and Beliefs” focused on two specific policies related to which team transgender athletes should compete on and how they should identify themselves on government documents.

The results showed that 69% of U.S. adults surveyed believe that “trangender athletes should only be allowed to play on sports teams that match their birth gender.” Of the sample, 90% of Republicans agreed with this statement, 72% of independents, and 42% of Democrats.

Slightly fewer Americans agree that “people should be required to list their birth sex on government documents such as driver’s licenses or passports.” The research found that 66% of Americans agreed with this statement and this included 89% of Republicans, 66% of independents, and only 38% of Democrats.

Between 2021 and 2025, Democrats’ and independents’ support for transgender athletes playing on sports teams that align with their “current gender identity” fell by 10 points. The poll found that there was no significant change in Republicans’ support.

The questionnaire also examined Americans’ views on the morality of “changing one’s gender” and found an increase in the number of people who believe it is “morally wrong.” As of 2025, 40% of U.S. adults believe that is “morally acceptable” to change one’s gender, which is six points less than it was in 2021.

Participants’ answers on morality were significantly different based on their designated political parties.

Of those surveyed, 71% of Democrats, 45% of independents, and only 9% of Republicans said that changing one’s gender is “morally acceptable.” Since 2021, Republicans experienced the largest shift with a decline of 13 points of those who find it acceptable.

The poll also found that “Americans are more likely to view gay or lesbian relations as morally acceptable than changing genders.” About 64% said they agreed that being gay is more acceptable, which included 86% of Democrats, 69% of independents, and 38% of Republicans.

Gallup reported that this poll was the first time the survey asked participants what causes “transgender identity.” Half of the participants said they believe transgender identity is due to one’s “upbringing” and “environment” and 30% said people are “born with it.” The rest had no opinion or believe that both are factors.

Republicans are much more likely to agree that “nurture” over “nature” is what leads to someone being transgender. The majority of the party (76%) reported that upbringing and environment cause it, compared with 9% who reported it is “nature” or from birth.

Democrats had less of a drastic difference with 29% believing it is “nurture” and 57% reporting it is “nature.”

Every category studied by Gallup prior to the 2025 study revealed an increase in support of focusing on one’s sex at birth rather than the way a person might identify himself or herself in terms of gender.

LAPD rally as a curfew takes effect in Los Angeles on June 10, 2025, following days of protests in response to federal immigration operations that saw clashes spread across downtown. / Credit: BENJAMIN HANSON/Middle East Images/AFP via Getty Images

CNA Staff, Jun 11, 2025 / 15:16 pm (CNA).

Archbishop José Gomez of Los Angeles has called for a day of prayer amid growing violence during protests against U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) following arrests of unauthorized immigrants living in the city.

The archbishop has instructed parishes across the archdiocese to hold special Masses for peace and unity, encouraging both Catholics and non-Catholics to pray for peace amid the rioting. 

Father Juan Ochoa, who runs the archdiocesan worship office, in a message to parishioners encouraged people to look to Christ.

“In this time of unrest and uncertainty, we turn our hearts to God, the source of all peace,” Ochoa said in the June 10 message.

The priest encouraged parishes to offer special intentions and suggested people partake in prayerful observances such as Liturgy of the Hours, Eucharistic adoration, and the Divine Mercy Chaplet. The message also encouraged people to pray the rosary as a family, fast, read sacred Scripture, and pray the Sacred Heart novena. 

“As followers of Jesus and members of his Church, we are called to be instruments of reconciliation, healing, and hope,” he said. 

The archbishop was scheduled to celebrate Mass at noon on Wednesday at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels “to unite our communities in prayer during this time of unrest,” according to the archdiocese.

The prelate “invites all Catholics and people of goodwill to pray for our nation, and especially for our immigrant and local community during this tumultuous time,” Ochoa said. 

The archdiocese is also encouraging Catholics to participate in a candlelight prayer vigil. 

Michael Donaldson, senior director for the archdiocesan Office of Life, Justice, and Peace, invited residents of the city to light a candle at 6 p.m. on June 10 “so that through prayer, wherever we may be, we are united for peace in our communities.”

Neighbors gathered in Grand Park for a peaceful interfaith prayer vigil in the evening, according to a social media post by the archdiocese.

An interfaith prayer vigil had previously been scheduled for Sunday evening at Los Angeles City Hall but was postponed amid escalating violence.

“With so many in fear, we are hoping to share a message of peace and hope, uniting our prayers with others throughout Southern California to end the violence, bring healing, and for a path toward reform of our broken immigration system,” Donaldson said.

As tensions escalated over the weekend, Gomez in a statement called for “restraint and calm,” also calling on Congress to fix the nation’s “broken” immigration system.

After ICE raids at multiple work sites, unrest began on June 6 and escalated as conflicts between protesters and law enforcement intensified over the weekend. 

On Saturday night, President Donald Trump deployed the National Guard despite California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s opposition. 

The president has since deployed hundreds of Marines to the state to join National Guard troops in protecting federal property and personnel and providing security to ICE agents. 

Meanwhile, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass enacted a curfew in parts of the downtown area.

Tommy Schultz, CEO of the American Federation for Children (right), speaks to “EWTN News Nightly” anchor Mark Irons on Friday, June 6, 2025. / Credit: “EWTN News Nightly”/Screenshot

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jun 11, 2025 / 12:16 pm (CNA).

Florida has emerged as a national leader in Catholic school enrollment as a product of Gov. Ron DeSantis’ education policy, the leader of a national school choice group says.

Step Up For Students, a Florida program that administers state-funded K–12 scholarships to expand school choice, reports that Catholic school enrollment in the state has recently increased by 12.1%, a contrast to the 13.2% decline seen nationwide.

Tommy Schultz, CEO of the national school choice group American Federation for Children, discussed the implications of these figures in an interview with “EWTN News Nightly,” crediting the accessibility of Florida’s school choice credit for the increase in enrollment. 

“Gov. DeSantis signed into law the big expansion that made every single family eligible for school choice funding in the state. And guess what? Florida is up 12%,” Schultz told anchor Mark Irons.

“In Florida, [families are] eligible for about $8,000 per kid per year with state funding, essentially. Rather than all of your taxpayer funds just going into the public system, now all parents fully control their funding for education in Florida,” Schultz said. 

In 2023, DeSantis signed a bill to expand opportunities for school choice. According to the Florida state government there are currently “1.4 million students utilizing a school choice option in Florida.”

Schultz emphasized the broader national impact of the Step Up For Students findings, particularly in the federal context.

“It couldn’t come at a better time,” he said. “Congress is currently negotiating a comprehensive legislative package, and there’s momentum to include school choice provisions that would extend similar opportunities to families in all 50 states.”

He contrasted Florida’s growth with steep declines in other states. “In New York, Catholic school enrollment has dropped by 31%, Pennsylvania is down 23%, and Illinois by 20%. These declines are driven by a combination of government regulation and financial challenges.”

The success in Florida, Schultz suggested, could serve as an example for national reform, including potentially even solving poverty.

“Now, where every family could theoretically be able to control their child’s education funding, like we see in Florida, like we see in Arizona and other places, that is just a total game changer for families, and it could bring a lot of children out of poverty,” he said.

Earlier this year, CNA reported on the National Catholic Educational Association’s latest annual report of Catholic school data, which found that “8% of students use school choice programs, which is up by nearly 5% from last year.”

Jay Richards, the director of the Heritage Foundation’s DeVos Center for Life, Religion, and Family, speaks at a Fidelity Month gathering on June 9, 2025, in the Longworth House Office Building on Capitol Hill. / Credit: Madalaine Elhabbal/CNA

Washington D.C., Jun 11, 2025 / 09:54 am (CNA).

Members of the grassroots movement promoting the month of June as “Fidelity Month” at a gathering on Capitol Hill on Monday called for a renewal of the “common bonds” that unite Americans.

Fidelity Month bills itself as “a positive, grassroots movement to heal division and restore unity in our nation. It celebrates June as a season of recommitment to God, our spouses and families, our communities, and country,” according to the Fidelity Month website. 

Princeton professor Robert George founded the movement in 2023 after reading a Wall Street Journal article citing survey data that showed significant declines in Americans’ belief in the importance of religion, family, and patriotism.

It was these principles, George said at the event in the Longworth House Office Building on June 9, that inspired him to declare “by the power invested in me by absolutely no one” the month of June to be Fidelity Month. 

The “exceptional” thing about America, George observed, is that the source of the country’s unity cannot be found in race, ethnicity, or a particular religious tradition. 

Rather, national unity of the United States is found in the “shared commitment to the principles of republican government” and the “shared belief in the importance of fidelity to God, fidelity to spouses and families, fidelity to our country and communities.” 

George said the movement has grown from a few thousand initial followers to tens of thousands in 2024. “This year, we’re moving into the hundreds of thousands,” he said, adding: “I hope we’ll be moving into the millions of people recognizing June as Fidelity Month, where we rededicate ourselves and pledge ourselves to these important principles.” 

George also discussed the Fidelity Month movement during a June 4 interview on “EWTN Pro-Life Weekly,” telling anchor Abigail Galván he hoped it would serve as a rallying point for Americans to reclaim the enduring values that have long been the bedrock of national unity. 

Sources of America’s unity and strength

At Monday’s event, titled “What Are the Sources of America’s Unity and Strength?”, George was joined by several conservative leaders including Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Missouri; the Heritage Foundation’s Jay Richards; and Kristen Waggoner, CEO of Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF).

Echoing George in her speech, Waggoner reflected that “unlike most countries, [America] was founded on a direct appeal to divine reality.”

Waggoner continued: “When the founders declared independence, they didn’t appeal to a king or to an army or even to a written constitution. They appealed to heaven, to a God who endows each person with an alienable right, no matter what they believe.”

In his remarks, Hawley extolled marriage as “the true test of virtue for men and women” but especially for young men.

Citing President Theodore Roosevelt’s four-volume work “The Winning of the West,” Hawley noted Roosevelt’s view that of all the dangers faced by frontiersmen in the West, “the greatest challenge they faced” was their character and that fidelity to marriage was the ultimate test of manhood and the foundation of civilization.

“Whereas in Roosevelt’s day, the challenge of the frontier was the challenge of bringing culture and civilization to a vast wide-open space to what was in many respects a wilderness, our challenge today is to preserve our civilization from becoming a wilderness,” Hawley said.

“Today, the wilderness threatens to come to us,” he continued. “We see this nowhere more starkly than the breakdown of marriage and the family.” 

Hawley called on members of the movement to embrace their responsibility to “craft an economy and a society where marriage is rewarded.”

“I think Roosevelt was right all those years ago,” he said, concluding: “This must be the great call that we give to our countrymen again, to embrace the call to fidelity, to be faithful to what we believe in, to be faithful to what makes us who we are, to be faithful in our marriage commitments, in our family life, to our country.”

In his speech, Richards, director of Heritage’s DeVos Center for Life, Religion, and Family, cited the changing tide on the gender ideology debate in the U.S., where half of the states have passed laws protecting children from “gender-affirming care.” 

Just three years ago, he pointed out, “it was difficult to get Republican staffers and members in Congress to even talk about this issue.” 

Now, he said, “something like 70 or 80% of the American public doesn’t believe that we should be conducting experimental medicine on kids who are uncomfortable with their bodies. [And] they don’t believe that males should be in female prisons.” 

“We now have a moment in which the vast majority of our country is opposed to the idea that separates children’s identities from their bodies and is focused like a laser beam on the health of children,” he said, concluding: “That’s concrete. That’s the moment for those of us to continue to commit ourselves to fidelity to God, to country, to marriage, and to family, to make the case for that good again.” 

Other speakers included former U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Ben Carson, Family Research Council President Tony Perkins, and American Enterprise Institute Senior Fellow Ian Rowe.

Daniel Kuebler, a professor of biology at Franciscan University, speaks at the 2025 Society of Catholic Scientists conference on June 7, 2025. / Credit: Rui Barros Photography

Washington D.C., Jun 11, 2025 / 07:00 am (CNA).

About 150 scientists gathered at the eighth annual Society of Catholic Scientists conference this past weekend for talks that touched on the Thomistic notion of free will, the intersection of mathematics and theology, near-death experiences, and the origin of the human species.

Three scholars — Kenneth Kemp, a professor emeritus of philosophy at the University of St. Thomas in Minnesota; Daniel Kuebler, a professor of biology at Franciscan University; and Chris Baglow, a professor of theology at the University of Notre Dame — gave talks on the compatibility of evolution and the teachings of the Catholic Church.

The conference ran from June 6–8 at The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C.

Although the teaching of evolution in high schools has led to objections from some Christian groups over the past century, the Catholic Church does not condemn the belief that humans evolved from an ape-like ancestor.

In 1950 — nearly a century after Charles Darwin published “On the Origin of Species” — Pope Pius XII addressed the subject in the encyclical Humani Generis. The pontiff did not rule out bodily evolution but made clear that the human soul is directly created by God and all humans are descendants of the first two people: Adam and Eve.

The Holy Father stated that the Church does not oppose inquiries into “the origin of the human body as coming from preexistent and living matter” but noted the faith “obliges us to hold that souls are immediately created by God.”

When addressing the teaching that every person is descendent from Adam and Eve, Pius XII rejected any opinion that “maintains that either after Adam there existed on this earth true men who did not take their origin through natural generation from him as from the first parent of all, or that Adam represents a certain number of first parents.”

‘Biological’ and ‘theological’ humans

Most evolutionary biologists assert that biological humans did not evolve from only two humans but rather as a group of humans. Although on its face this may seem to conflict with the Catholic understanding of Genesis, the conference speakers argued that no contention exists and suggested there is a distinction between a “biological” human and a “philosophical” and “theological” human.

Kemp, the first to speak on the subject, said a “biological” human would be any human that possessed human DNA, while a “philosophical” human is a human that also possessed conceptual thought and free will, and a “theological” human is one that has the ability to form a relationship with God.

According to Kemp, someone who was “fully human” in the early development of man (what Pius XII would refer to as “true men”), was one who possessed a “philosophical-theological humanity” from which he believes all of modern-day humanity descends. Such a person was an ensouled creature with rationality who had the capability to develop logic, language, and culture.

“Fully human beings were capable of interbreeding with the merely biological human beings despite the fact that they are distinct both behaviorally (being rational) and structurally (having the created souls that make that rationality possible),” Kemp said.

“If God created rational souls into two members of a merely biologically human population, and then into all or most of their descendants, including the descendants of mixed parentage, but into no one else, and some fully human beings interbred with the merely biologically human beings, then even a low level of interbreeding could be expected to produce a species all of which would be descendant from the single original fully human couple,” Kemp argued.

This position, according to Kemp, is both “scientifically possible and theologically orthodox.”

The beginnings of humanity

Kuebler, a biologist who spoke after Kemp, expressed a similar distinction. A biological human would be any human who fit into the species of “Homo sapiens” and a theological human is a person made in the “imago Dei,” or the image of God. He similarly said that it is possible that some of the early humans could have possessed merely biological humanity before all of the species possessed theological humanity.

The exact moments when biological humanity came into existence, when the first two theological humans Adam and Eve were ensouled, and when all of biological humanity possessed theological humanity, cannot be easily determined, according to Kuebler.

However, he noted there are signs that can point to rational thought. He points to the use of composite tools and art about 200,000 years ago and to the use of ochre (a type of clay) for decoration, which began around 500,000 to 300,000 years ago and became widespread about 150,000 years ago.

Yet, Kuebler said the signs become more clear around 50,000 to 100,000 years ago with more ritualistic art and the creation of jewelry, which he said “are things that are made by people with rational and conceptual thought.” 

“The best signs of it are about 100,000 years ago,” he added.

Baglow addressed the question of where Neanderthals fall in these classifications, saying he is “not sure whether Neanderthals were theological humans” but remains open to the possibility. Neanderthals went extinct about 40,000 years ago but also interbred with early modern humans. Most people outside of Africa have some Neanderthal DNA.

He referenced the early cave art of Neanderthals as being similar to early modern humans but said “images [are] not necessarily symbols,” and rationality in art is “when an image begins to stand for something else.”

Although Baglow said it is possible that Neanderthals were theological humans, he said it may be the case that they simply had “a very special form of pre-rationality,” which was “preparatory toward personhood” for when they interbred with early modern humans.

Even though Catholic doctrine shows that evolution does not conflict with the faith, the Church does not require that Catholics believe in it.

According to a 2024 Gallup survey, about 62% of Catholics say they believe humans developed over millions of years from less advanced forms of life and about 32% said they believe God created humans in their current form within the last 10,000 years, illustrating that Catholics are slightly more likely than the average American to believe in human evolution.

null / Credit: Tati9/Shutterstock

CNA Staff, Jun 10, 2025 / 15:51 pm (CNA).

A U.S.-based biotech company has announced the launch of Nucleus Embryo, a company that screens human embryos for desired genetic profiles, a practice the Catholic Church teaches violates human dignity and contributes to a eugenic mentality. 

People undergoing in vitro fertilization (IVF) will be able to screen up to 20 embryos for over 900 conditions and traits, including health risks, intelligence, and physical characteristics like height and eye color, in order to “optimize” their embryos, according to Kian Sadeghi, founder of Nucleus Genomics, parent company of Nucleus Embryo.

“I see a world where sequencing, analyzing, and editing DNA merge seamlessly to create a truly preventative health care system,” the 25-year-old Sadeghi said on the company’s website, adding: “Every parent wants to give their children more than they had. For the first time in human history, Nucleus adds a new tool to that commitment.”

Embryos that meet parental desires will be eligible for implanting, and undesirable ones will be discarded.

While the Catholic Church teaches that IVF is morally illicit because it completely separates procreation from the marital act and violates the dignity of the child, the Church also condemns preimplantation diagnosis as “shameful and utterly reprehensible,” an “expression of a eugenic mentality” that leads to the destruction of innocent human life.

Published by the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, the 2008 document Dignitatis Personae affirms that the human embryo cannot be treated as “mere laboratory material” because this violates its dignity, which “belongs equally to every single human being, irrespective of his parents’ desires, his social condition, educational formation, or level of physical development.”

The document explicitly condemns preimplantation diagnosis and resulting genetic enhancements because they can result in the killing of human embryos “affected by various types of anomalies,” and they “presume to measure the value of a human life only within the parameters of ‘normality’ and physical well-being, thus opening the way to legitimizing infanticide and euthanasia.”

Such procedures could also marginalize individuals, widen societal divides, and “harm peaceful coexistence among individuals,” the dicastery stated.  

The document questioned who would establish which gene edits were worthwhile and which were not, and what limits, if any, should be placed on genetic enhancements “since it would be materially impossible to fulfill the wishes of every single person.”

In the end, the common good will be harmed by “favoring the will of some over the freedom of others.”

National Catholic Bioethics Center senior ethicist Father Tad Pacholczyk told CNA that “couples will now be tempted to impose quality control and eugenics onto their vulnerable and voiceless children.”

Nucleus Embryo’s website emphasizes genetic manipulation of embryos before implantation and states: “The best time to prevent disease is pre-pregnancy. Knowing what you could pass on to your kids lets you plan with clarity and avoid future surprises.”

This is a “‘command and control’ mentality over procreation,” Pacholczyk said, which allows people to treat their “own offspring like raw material … It’s tragic when our children become a mere abstraction, pawns to be played in the end game of seeking what we want.”

“Society’s demand for physical perfection places untold pressure on couples today to ‘conform to the norm’ by aborting or otherwise eliminating any less-than-perfect children,” he continued.

“Human embryos, among the most vulnerable of God’s creatures, have been entrusted to us to be received unconditionally and lovingly by all parents, without demanding that they run any gauntlet of prenatal screening. Every child, exactly as he or she arrives into our families, is precious, good, and beautiful.”

Pacholczyk said not every use of prenatal diagnostic information is morally unacceptable, however. 

Diagnostic information that “assists in the treatment of an in-utero patient represents a morally praiseworthy use of this powerful technology.”

For example, a life-threatening disease known as Krabbe’s leukodystrophy can be treated through a bone marrow transplant immediately following a child’s birth. If the disease is diagnosed prenatally, the parents can look for matching bone marrow before the child is born. Certain other diseases, such as spina bifida, can also be surgically treated prenatally.