St. Mary's Church

CNA Staff, Jul 5, 2025 / 08:00 am (CNA).

As more Catholic parishes and notable Catholic figures become the targets of scammers, a new initiative has been launched to help Catholics spot a scam and avoid becoming victims.

Theresa Payton, CEO of Fortalice Solutions and former White House chief information officer, is spearheading the initiative, called “Protecting the Faithful.” The campaign is being actively rolled out in parishes across the country through bulletin announcements and the distribution of infographics, videos, and guides highlighting the red flags of a scam.

Many of these scams come in the form of emails sent to parishioners that look to be from their pastor asking them to donate to parish charities or ministries. Scammers are also targeting the fans of notable Catholic figures.

For instance, there have been several incidents where scammers impersonated Catholic actor Jonathan Roumie. The scammers have messaged Roumie’s followers on social media, pretending they are Roumie and promising a visit to the set of “The Chosen” or being the president of his fan club if they send a certain amount of money.

The Protecting the Faithful initiative is also being distributed on social media through official fan accounts of notable Catholic names in order to warn other fans as well as through podcasts and other Catholic news media outlets.

Payton told CNA that she was inspired to do something about the problem because of “how the faithful are being taken advantage of by criminals and fraudsters.”

“I’ve had victims on the other end of the phone, ashamed that they were a victim, crying, sending their hard-earned money to bad people, and I just had such a broken heart over this that I was like, something must be done,” she said.

“I’ve spent a whole career profiling criminals, and what people need to know is they play to our heart, they play to our human nature,” she added. “They know how to get us to act fast, they know how to get to our sympathies, to the best things about us, and they exploit the best things about us.”

Payton pointed out that with the recent technological advancements, specifically artificial intelligence, it is even easier for scammers to create voice clones, fake videos, and fake images, such as fake driver’s licenses and passports, which can be created “at speed and at scale.”

There are several red flags Payton warns individuals to be aware of in order to be able to spot a scammer, specifically when it comes to impersonators on social media. 

The first is receiving a message from an impersonator saying that the account the person is messaging from is his or her personal or backup account, not the person’s official account. Second is if the person asks to move the conversation over to WhatsApp or Telegram, which are encrypted apps used for communicating. The third red flag is when a scammer invites the individual to become the president of a fan club for a certain amount of money. Lastly, any kind of link that is sent should never be clicked on. 

Payton emphasized that those who’ve been a victim of a scam need to know that “you’ve done nothing wrong, you’re not dumb, you are a good person and because you’re a good person, somebody took advantage of you and you should not feel ashamed of that.”

She also urged individuals to report scams to their local police and IC3.gov, which is monitored by the FBI, and when a large trend is seen, an investigation is conducted and a public service announcement is released warning people nationwide of the scam that is taking place.

Another resource Payton mentioned for those who’ve been a victim is the Identity Theft Resource Center, a nonprofit that offers free resources and guidance to help individuals take the proper steps to recover their identities and other information that may have been stolen.

Returning to the goal of the campaign, Payton said it is to “make sure that everybody around me in the Catholic faith, and even outside the Catholic faith, is as safe and secure as possible.”

She added: “I love being Catholic, and part of what we’re called to do is to take the talents God gave us and invest those in a way that is pleasing to him.”

“If my team and I can do something to avoid another victim, then every moment we spend on this initiative and on this campaign is worth it,” she said.

Cada 5 de julio la Iglesia Católica celebra a San Antonio María Zaccaria, médico y sacerdote italiano, fundador de los Clérigos Regulares de San Pablo (Barnabitas), las Hermanas Angélicas de San Pablo y los Laicos de San Pablo. San Antonio María forma parte del extraordinario grupo de santos fundadores del siglo XVI.

En México y en España, amigos y familiares se mantienen en oración por la recuperación del P. Héctor Alejandro Pérez, sacerdote mexicano que fue herido con un arma de fuego el pasado lunes 30 de junio en Villahermosa, capital del estado de Tabasco.

El Cardenal Timothy Dolan, Arzobispo de Nueva York, deseó un feliz 4 de julio, día de la Independencia de Estados Unidos, y alentó a celebrarla reconociendo que existe en todos una dependencia de Dios Todopoderoso.

Bajo la sombra de los pinos romanos, los estadounidenses en Roma celebraron este 4 de julio algo más que barbacoas y fuegos artificiales: la histórica elección del primer Papa nacido y criado en Estados Unidos.

Alejandra Quintana tiene 45 años, vive en Salta (Argentina) y es profesora de educación física. Sin embargo, desde muy joven, su corazón perseguía un anhelo mayor: ser de Cristo. 

Los obispos de Panamá expresaron su preocupación por “algunas posturas” del gobierno de Estados Unidos que “ponen en entredicho el respeto a la soberanía panameña” sobre el Canal de Panamá, así como por la violencia en el país y los “rostros de dolor de la migración”, al concluir su asamblea plenaria, realizada del 30 de junio al 4 de julio.

El Papa León XIV nombró el 3 de julio a dos destacados cardenales, Pierbattista Pizzaballa, Patriarca Latino de Jerusalén, y Dominique Mathieu, Arzobispo de Teherán-Isfahán (Irán), como miembros del Dicasterio para el Diálogo Interreligioso del Vaticano.

Bogotá acogerá del 29 al 31 de julio el gran encuentro nacional de movimientos eclesiales y nuevas comunidades bajo el lema “Los laicos no son parte de la Iglesia, son la Iglesia”, inspirado en el Papa Pío XII.

CNA Newsroom, Jul 4, 2025 / 15:29 pm (CNA).

Bishop Robert Barron on July 4 urged a federal court to strike down a Washington state law that would force priests to violate the seal of confession, telling the court that the law is "manifestly" disrespectful of the ancient and vital Church practice.

Barron, the bishop of Winona-Rochester and a member of the White House Religious Liberty Commission, made the argument in a proposed amicus brief filed in U.S. district court in Washington State.

The filing comes on behalf of the bishops of Washington State, who in May of this year sued the state government over its new mandatory reporting law that requires priests to report child abuse learned during the sacrament of confession or face jail time and fines. 

The law has drawn criticism from religious liberty advocates who say it unjustly targets Catholics. The Department of Justice and a coalition of Orthodox churches have also sued the state government over the rule.

The Confraternity of Catholic Clergy, representing over 500 Roman Catholic priests and deacons from the U.S., Australia, and the United Kingdom, last month issued a statement defending the inviolability of the seal of confession, arguing against laws like Washington State's and pointing out that child protection "can be lawfully and morally done without violating religious liberty.”

Barron's brief stressed to the court what it described as the "oft-misunderstood theological underpinnings of the seal of Confession."

"Few religious practices are more misunderstood than the sacred seal of Confession in the Catholic Church," the bishop wrote in the document.

Since Catholics believe that penitents who seek the sacrament of confession are "speaking to and hearing from the Lord himself" via the priest, then "absolutely nothing ought to stand in the way of a sinner who seeks this font of grace," Barron wrote.

"If a penitent is aware the priest might (let alone must) share with others what was given in the most sacred confidence, he or she would be reluctant indeed to ever approach Confession," he said.

The bishop argued that the state law is "manifestly premised on a disrespect for the confessional seal," in part because it explicitly exempts clergy from an otherwise-broad exception for privileged communications.

The law violates longstanding precedent on religious freedom, the bishop wrote, as well as established legal rules regarding religious neutrality.

Barron urged the court to grant an injunction against the law barring it from being enforced. The law is scheduled to take effect July 27.

A hearing for the lawsuit is scheduled for July 14.