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Bishop Andrew Cozzens of Crookston, Minnesota, announced in a video message Aug. 20, 2025, that he will soon open the sainthood cause of Sister Annella Zervas, OSB, making it the first sainthood cause ever opened in the northerly Minnesota diocese. / Credit: Diocese of Crookston; Joanne Zervas

National Catholic Register, Aug 26, 2025 / 13:23 pm (CNA).

When Anna Zervas entered religious life and chose her religious name, Mary Annella, her mother reportedly objected to the choice. “There’s no St. Annella,” her mother pointed out. To which the young woman answered: “Then I shall have to be the first one.”

Zervas’ goal — sainthood — is now closer than ever, as Bishop Andrew Cozzens of Crookston, Minnesota, announced that he will soon open her sainthood cause, making Zervas’ the first sainthood cause ever opened in the northerly Minnesota diocese. 

Zervas died in 1926, aged just 26, after suffering from a debilitating skin condition. After her death, people began to report receiving favors and miracles through the holy Benedictine nun’s intercession. 

In a video message posted Aug. 20, Cozzens announced that he will open Zervas’ cause with a Mass on Oct. 9 at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Crookston; “everyone” is invited. Doors will open at 4 p.m., and at 5 p.m., Patrick Norton, a local Catholic who has worked to spread devotion to Zervas in recent years, will share his story.

An organ recital will take place at 6 p.m., followed by Mass at 6:30. 

Cozzens said in his video message that he had received a “nihil obstat” from the Vatican’s Dicastery for the Causes of Saints, affirming that nothing stands in the way of opening Zervas’ cause. Once opened — giving Zervas the title “Servant of God” — the cause will first gather testimonies and information to determine if Zervas lived a life of “heroic virtue.”

“Sister Annella is a daughter of the Diocese of Crookston, who was born and died in Moorhead, Minnesota. And she offers all of us an extraordinary example of deeply lived Catholic faith and deep trust in God,” Cozzens said. 

“Through this cause,” he added, “we begin the process of gathering evidence to determine if her life is one of heroic virtue and whether imitation and formal recognition will be granted by the universal Church.”

Zervas was born Anna Cordelia Zervas in the Fargo, North Dakota-adjacent town of Moorhead in 1900. The second of six children in a devoutly Catholic family, Zervas showed a great devotion to her faith, especially to Christ’s presence in the Eucharist. As a young girl, she would often walk to daily Mass, even in the extreme cold of the upper Midwest.

At age 15, she entered the Order of St. Benedict at the convent of the Benedictine Sisters in St. Joseph, Minnesota. She made her perpetual vows in July 1922.

After only one year as a sister, Sister Annella began experiencing what was later diagnosed as pityriasis rubra pilaris, a chronic and debilitating skin disease that caused extreme itching and other serious discomforts. Despite her condition, the musically talented sister persisted in her role as a music teacher at a Catholic school in Bismarck, North Dakota. 

Known for her positive attitude and good humor, she offered up her pain in unity with Christ’s suffering, trusting in Mary’s intercession and finding in the Eucharist her “greatest consolation.” She died on the eve of the solemnity of the Assumption.

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) voted overwhelmingly in favor of moving forward her cause at its fall 2024 plenary assembly. 

As part of the buildup to the opening of her cause, the Zervas family has reportedly been cooperative, sharing photos and information to help tell her story. A nonprofit guild, made up of Catholic faithful, has been organized under the guidance of Cozzens to promote prayer for and awareness of her prospective cause as well.

Based on the evidence of the “positio,” the official document compiled by the Diocese of Crookston that is sent to the Vatican’s Dicastery for the Causes of Saints to determine if the Benedictine lived a life of heroic virtue, Sister Annella will be declared “venerable.” If the Vatican verifies that a miracle can be attributed to her intercession, she will be declared “blessed.”

“May God bless you, and may he continue to raise up saints in our midst,” Cozzens concluded.

This story was first published by the National Catholic Register, CNA’s sister news partner, and has been adapted by CNA.

Bishop José Arturo Cepeda. / Credit: Courtesy of the Archdiocese of Detroit

Vatican City, Aug 26, 2025 / 09:45 am (CNA).

Pope Leo XIV on Tuesday appointed Detroit Auxiliary Bishop José Arturo Cepeda as auxiliary bishop in the Archdiocese of San Antonio.

The transfer marks the Mexican-born bishop’s return to San Antonio, the south-central Texas city where he served as a priest from his ordination in 1996 until his consecration as an auxiliary bishop for the Archdiocese of Detroit in 2011.

Born in San Luis Potosí in eastern-central Mexico, the 56-year-old bishop attended Catholic schools and the minor seminary. Cepeda immigrated to the United States with his family at the age of 19.

In the Archdiocese of San Antonio, the auxiliary bishop will assist Archbishop Gustavo García-Siller, also born in San Luis Potosí, Mexico, and two other auxiliary bishops in leading over 1.1 million Catholics. 

In an Aug. 26 statement, García-Siller said he is “particularly glad to offer a heartfelt welcome home to Bishop Cepeda. San Antonio is where he grew up and first heard the Lord call him and nurture his priestly vocation.”

The archbishop added that Cepeda will bring the Archdiocese of San Antonio “valuable perspectives that will assist us in our evangelization efforts to spread the Gospel with missionary zeal.”

Cepeda earned a licentiate degree and later a doctorate in spiritual theology from the Pontifical University of Thomas Aquinas (the Angelicum) in Rome in 2005. 

He also has a bachelor’s degree from the College Seminary of the Immaculate Heart of Mary in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and a master’s degree in biblical theology from St. Mary’s University in San Antonio.

Before being appointed an auxiliary bishop, he spent four years as parochial vicar of the San Fernando Cathedral in San Antonio, followed by a decade as a faculty member at Assumption Seminary and the Oblate School of Theology, also in San Antonio. 

Cepeda was vocation director and faculty member for the Transitional Ministry Formation Program for the Archdiocese of San Antonio. From 2010 to 2011 he was also rector of Assumption Seminary.

During his 14 years in Detroit, Cepeda was a leader in the Michigan archdiocese’s ministry to Hispanic and Spanish-speaking Catholics. He also served as director of the Department of Evangelization, Catechesis, and Schools from 2013 to 2017.

On the national level, he served as chairman of the U.S. bishops’ conference’s Subcommittee on Hispanic Affairs and Committee on Cultural Diversity in the Church. He was also one of the organizers of the Fifth National Encuentro (“Encounter”) of Hispanic/Latino Ministry. 

“I am deeply grateful for the trust placed in me and for the opportunity I had to serve for 14 years in this archdiocese,” Cepeda said in an Aug. 26 message to Catholics of Detroit. “My episcopal ministry undoubtedly took shape here, my temporary home. As I begin my new mission, know that I hold you in my prayers and humbly ask that you keep me in yours.”

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Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Aug 26, 2025 / 09:00 am (CNA).

President Donald Trump’s administration has started to incorporate some elements of pro-life reproductive health care into its policy goals, which pro-life advocates argue are alternatives to in vitro fertilization (IVF) procedures meant to address fertility problems.

So far the inclusion of these efforts has been limited and the president has remained consistent in supporting IVF as the major solution to fertility issues. Yet some Catholics and others in the pro-life movement have been urging these alternative approaches amid ethical concerns surrounding IVF, such as the millions of human embryos killed through the procedure.

Life-affirming options tend to focus on curing the root causes of infertility. This health care, which many practitioners call “restorative reproductive medicine,” can include charting one’s menstrual cycle, lifestyle and diet changes, and diagnosing and treating underlying conditions that lead to fertility struggles.

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is currently considering grant applicants for an “infertility training center,” which is the most concrete plan to date to incorporate pro-life fertility care options within the administration’s policy goals.

The potential $1.5 million grant would use federal Title X family planning funds to help the recipient “educate on the root causes of infertility and the broad range of holistic infertility treatments and referrals available.” The money would also help “expand and enhance root cause infertility testing, treatments, and referrals.”

When reached for comment, an HHS spokesperson told CNA the agency could not comment on “potential or future policy decisions.”

Restorative reproductive medicine was also discussed at a recent event hosted by the MAHA Institute, named after HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s “Make America Healthy Again” slogan. The institute is run by Del Bigtree, who is Kennedy’s former communications director.

“Traditional women’s health and fertility care has relied heavily on Big Pharma Band-Aids and workarounds that circumvent a woman’s reproductive system rather than working in harmony with it and doing the work of deeper investigation to find and treat underlying causes of infertility,” Maureen Ferguson, a commissioner on the Commission on International Religious Freedom, said at the event.

Ferguson introduced a roundtable of doctors who practice restorative reproductive medicine.

“Restorative reproductive medicine is effective, affordable, it leads to healthier moms and babies, and it’s far preferred by couples, most of whom wish to conceive naturally,” Ferguson said.

Reproductive medicine policy opportunities

Emma Waters, a policy analyst at the conservative Heritage Foundation, told CNA there are several ways the government can promote restorative reproductive medicine.

“This needs to be a project that both states and the federal government prioritize,” she said.

Waters said current insurance coding “doesn’t account for the kinds of care that [restorative reproductive medicine] is offering” or “doesn’t cover each step.”

She noted that insurance will often cover surgeries to fix endometriosis, which often causes infertility, but will not cover the initial exploratory surgery needed to properly diagnose the condition.

She said this could be improved with broader coverage or a restorative reproductive medicine “bundle package for care,” similar to an OB-GYN bundle package for when a woman is pregnant, to “simplify the billing process.”

Additional policy options, Waters noted, include grant funding for research and training. 

Restorative reproductive medicine “is aiming to ensure that that man and woman’s body is the healthiest it can be for the pregnancy journey,” she said.

Waters noted that this health care “recognizes that infertility is not a disease but is a symptom of underlying conditions.” As opposed to IVF, restorative reproductive medicine focuses on “the root, rather than bypassing the body,” and helps ensure the body is healthy enough to “sustain that embryo through pregnancy and a live birth.”

Theresa Notare, who serves as the assistant director of the natural family planning program at the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, told CNA restorative reproductive medicine is often practiced in a way consistent with Catholic Church teaching, such as natural procreative technology and fertility education and medical management.

“You’re trying to basically healthfully address whatever problem a patient is having and you’re trying to restore them to the balance that they should have … to naturally conceive,” she said.

IVF alternatively violates Church teaching because it destroys human embryos and because “conception would be taking place outside of the marital embrace,” Notare said. 

She said marriage is a covenant in which “the man and the women are coming together in this one-flesh union.”

“That communion of persons — that environment — is where the Lord God gave husband and wife stewardship over the power of life and love,” Notare said.

The Catholic bishops are backing a suit by a coalition of Apache Stronghold, a coalition of Native Americans and their supporters, in their lawsuit against the federal government. The lawsuit argues that their freedom of religion was violated when the federal government announced its intention to sell formerly protected land in Arizona to a mining company. / Credit: Photo courtesy of Becket

CNA Staff, Aug 26, 2025 / 06:00 am (CNA).

“Arbitrary government interference.”

That’s what the Knights of Columbus warned will befall religious believers in the U.S. if a copper mining company is allowed to take possession of, and destroy, a centuries-old Native American worship site in Arizona.

That site, Oak Flat, has been the subject of years of dispute and litigation, with a coalition group of activists known as Apache Stronghold leading an effort to prevent the government from surrendering the ancient religious location to private interests.

For decades the federal government protected the parcel from development in the Tonto National Forest. But the Obama administration in 2014 began the process of transferring the land to the multinational Resolution Copper, whose mining operations will dig a massive pit at the site and end its status as a center of worship.

The Native American activists have drawn support from a wide variety of religious advocates and stakeholders in the U.S., including the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) and the Knights of Columbus.

Apache Stronghold lost its bid at the Supreme Court earlier this year to halt the sale. This month, as part of a different legal challenge, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit paused the sale just hours before it was to take effect, giving Native advocates likely their last chance to head off the destruction of the site.

Religious Freedom Restoration Act weakened

At issue in the main legal dispute is the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA), a Clinton-era law that restricts how and under what conditions the U.S. government can impose burdens upon U.S. religious liberty.

RFRA states that laws “shall not substantially burden” an individual’s religion, ordering that the government must have both a compelling interest in burdening a religion and must achieve it via the least restrictive means. 

Joe Davis, an attorney with the religious liberty legal group Becket, told CNA that the law is what’s known as a “super statute,” one that “applies to all federal law and all federal actions under the law.” 

Becket has supported Apache Stronghold in its effort to halt the sale of the site. Davis said that Congress in passing RFRA aimed to ensure that “before the government really does anything, it’s supposed to think about the effects and implications on religion and religious practitioners.” 

“RFRA doesn’t actually stop the government from doing anything,” he said. “It just requires them to have a really good reason to do it.”

Prior to the Supreme Court’s rejection of the Apache Stronghold case, a lower court had decided that though RFRA generally prohibits the government’s “substantial burdening” of religion, that guidance does not apply in cases of “disposition of government real property,” as is the case with the Oak Flat parcel. 

Davis described that ruling as a “restrictive interpretation of RFRA.” The more narrow reading of the law, he said, “will filter down into other cases and be applied any time the government wants to avoid having to prove a burden on religious exercise.”

Indeed, the case has already had a demonstrable effect on religious liberty in the U.S., specifically involving a Knights of Columbus chapter in Virginia. 

The Knights Petersburg Council 694 had held a memorial Mass at Poplar Grove National Cemetery for decades, but the National Park Service in 2023 moved to bar the Knights from any further Masses, claiming it constituted a prohibited “demonstration” due to its religious character. 

The government eventually relented in the face of litigation. But Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch, writing in dissent earlier this year over the high court’s refusal to hear the Apache case, pointed out that the government in banning the Knights had explicitly cited the new RFRA standard brought about by the Oak Flat case.

Davis noted the diverse religious concerns raised by the case, pointing to filings in support of the Native Americans from the U.S. bishops, the Knights, and numerous other major faith groups.

The injunction issued this month by the 9th Circuit concerns three separate cases, one of which involves environmental claims. Briefs in the case will be due starting Sept. 8. Whether or not the more restrictive interpretation of RFRA can be reversed in those cases is unclear.

Davis, meanwhile, stressed that the statute “protects all religions and religious practitioners in this country.”

The U.S. bishops agreed last year, writing with other Christian groups that changing the parameters of RFRA made the law “a dead letter when applied to obliteration of an Indigenous sacred site on federal land.”

“Beyond that catastrophic harm, this approach defies the statutory text, misreads precedent, and would produce other unjust results,” they wrote.

Davis, meanwhile, argued that the restrictive interpretation “is really bad for all religions in this country.”

“It’s bad for the Apaches, and it’s bad for all people of faith,” he said.

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Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Aug 25, 2025 / 18:27 pm (CNA).

In a bid to help strengthen marriages across the state, the California Catholic Conference (CCC) has launched its first-ever statewide partnership with Communio, a nonprofit organization that equips parishes to “evangelize through the renewal of healthy relationships, marriages, and families.”

News of the agreement follows the CCC’s efforts over the past year to promote marriage and family through its “Radiate Love” initiative, which is set to end on Sept. 26 with a marriage summit in Oakland, where the CCC’s partnership with Communio will officially launch.

“The goal is to quantifiably strengthen marriage, either by self-reported happiness in marriage, by rising marriage rates, or by encouraging people to marry,” Communio’s director of church growth, Damon Owens, told CNA.

Ordinarily, Communio partners on a diocesan and parish level to build out the most optimal version of its Full Circle Relationship Ministry® model to suit the needs of the community. Owens said he was inspired about a year and a half ago by the Radiate Love initiative to reach out to the conference about a partnership.

After speaking with California Catholic Conference Executive Director Kathleen Domingo for some months and traveling to California to deliver talks centered on the theology of the body and marriage and family issues, the partnership — which includes all 12 bishops and dioceses in the state — came to fruition.

The agreement, Owens said, marks the first time that every bishop across an entire state has bought in to bringing the program to every parish in his diocese.

“Every parish in California will now have access to Communio’s relationship ministry model, which is credited with a 24% drop in the divorce rate in Jacksonville, Florida,” the conference said in an Aug. 20 press release announcing the arrangement.

“I’ve been watching the progression of Communio over the years and hearing really great things from our marriage and family life directors, who have always told us that Communio is the gold standard,” Domingo said in the release.

She added: “If they could have any tool in their toolbox to help parishioners and parish families, it would be Communio.”

“In John 10:10, the Lord said that he came so that we would have life and have it more abundantly. We know that strong marriages and healthy families help us to have this abundant life, so we are excited to partner with Communio,” Auxiliary Bishop Timothy Freyer of the Diocese of Orange and executive officer for the CCC also said in the release.

Inside the data-driven effort to reach parishioners

“The core of what we offer is data insight to know what the problems are, but also access to technology and consulting that helps to build a plan of events and encounters where new people come to the parish and parishioners themselves want to come,” he explained.

“We have a unique technology that helps to do both the data gathering but also determining which programs are a good fit for them,” Owens continued. “So part of the consulting is literally going through almost like an Amazon page where you’re selecting facilitator-led programs or on your own or workbook or group or individual.”

Communio provides programs tailored to one of four areas: singles, marriage preparation, marriage enrichment, and marriage in crisis. They work with a team of five to six people in a parish to build a calendar of events for the year in a sequence that best helps “to draw people into the Church, but addresses the top needs first.”

“It’s a very customized way of making sure that they get the results that they want because people are telling us what their needs are through the surveys,” he said, noting that this addresses the “deepest concern” for pastors regarding the “specific needs that their people have.”

“California represents probably the whole spectrum of the type of parishes that we work around the country. You’ve got the poor rural, you’ve got the wealthy suburbs, you’ve got big cities, you’ve got mountains, you’ve got large parishes, small parishes,” Owens pointed out. 

“I think for each of those pastors, they want to know, is investing in Communio to invest in those marriages going to bring to them the success that we’ve been able to achieve around the country?” he said. “And that’s why we’re so confident and excited about it, because we know that we can.”

The Ten Commandments outside the Texas state capitol building. / Credit: BLundin via Flickr (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

Houston, Texas, Aug 25, 2025 / 17:57 pm (CNA).

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has directed public schools across the state not enjoined by ongoing litigation to comply with Senate Bill 10 (SB 10), a new law requiring the display of the Ten Commandments in every public school classroom. 

A federal court ruling last week temporarily blocked its enforcement in nearly a dozen independent school districts (ISDs) across the state.

“Schools not enjoined by ongoing litigation must abide by [SB 10] and display the Ten Commandments,” Paxton said in his directive, issued on Aug. 24.

On Aug. 20, U.S. District Judge Fred Biery issued a preliminary injunction after 16 families sued 11 Texas school districts, arguing the law violates the First Amendment’s separation of church and state. 

The federal ruling halts the law’s implementation, set to begin Sept. 1, in school districts in and around San Antonio, Austin, Houston, and the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex and includes Alamo Heights ISD, North East ISD, Lackland ISD, Northside ISD, Austin ISD, Lake Travis ISD, Dripping Springs ISD, Houston ISD, Fort Bend ISD, Cypress Fairbanks ISD, and Plano ISD. 

Paxton’s office filed an appeal on Aug. 21, asserting that the law reflects Texas’ historical and moral foundation.

“From the beginning, the Ten Commandments have been irrevocably intertwined with America’s legal, moral, and historical heritage,” Paxton said in an Aug. 25 press release. “The woke radicals seeking to erase our nation’s history will be defeated. I will not back down from defending the virtues and values that built this country.”

SB 10, signed into law by Gov. Greg Abbott on June 21, requires all public elementary and secondary schools to display a durable poster or framed copy of the Ten Commandments, measuring at least 16 by 20 inches, in every classroom.

According to Paxton: “While no school is compelled to purchase Ten Commandments displays, schools may choose to do so. However, schools must accept and display any privately donated posters or copies that meet the requirements of SB 10.”

Supporters, including Republican state Sen. Phil King, who introduced the legislation along with state Sen. Mayes Middleton, have argued the law promotes values foundational to Texas and U.S. law.

“The Ten Commandments are part of our Texas and American story,” King said of the law earlier this year. “They are ingrained into who we are as a people and as a nation. Today, our students cry out for the moral clarity, for the statement of right and wrong that they represent. If our students don’t know the Ten Commandments, they will never understand the foundation for much of American history and law.”

Attorney Andrea Picciotti-Bayer, director of The Conscience Project, told CNA: “These laws requiring a passive display of the Ten Commandments do not violate either the establishment clause or the free exercise clause.”

Of the appeal filed by Paxton, Picciotti-Bayer said: “The 5th Circuit en banc should examine challenges against them, and if it does not, the U.S. Supreme Court will likely make clear that such modest acknowledgements of faith and the foundations of law pass judicial scrutiny.” 

The law’s opponents, including the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), contend it unconstitutionally favors Christianity.

Heather Weaver, an attorney with the ACLU’s Program on Freedom of Religion and Belief, who represented the plaintiffs, acknowledged that Biery’s ruling, “as a technical matter,” only “covers the school district defendants.” Despite this, she went on to say: “Every school district should heed it, even if they are not a defendant in the case.”

The 11 school districts affected by the temporary injunction have a combined enrollment of approximately 680,790 students. This represents about 12.38% of the total 5.5 million public school students in Texas for the 2024-2025 school year.

As of the 2024-2025 school year, Texas has 1,246 public school districts, according to the Texas Education Agency. This number includes 1,026 ISDs and 220 charter school districts.

The legal fight mirrors similar battles in Louisiana and Arkansas, where courts have also blocked Ten Commandments display laws. Paxton’s appeal could escalate the issue to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Known as “the papal chef,” Salvo Lo Castro spent 10 years at the Vatican cooking meals for Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI. Now, he’s opened his first restaurant in New York City’s SoHo neighborhood called Casasalvo. / Credit: TheBrandoers, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

CNA Staff, Aug 25, 2025 / 17:27 pm (CNA).

Known as “the papal chef,” Salvo Lo Castro spent 10 years at the Vatican cooking meals for Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI. Now, he’s opened his first restaurant in New York City’s SoHo neighborhood called Casasalvo. 

The new Italian restaurant opened in July and has quickly gained popularity, particularly for Lo Castro’s mother’s meatball recipe — which was also a big hit among the two popes he served. 

The 52-year-old Sicilian chef said that for those who eat at his new restaurant, it’s like eating a meal in his home.

“The restaurant is my home, and the people who dine with me aren’t clients — they’re guests who come to my home,” he said in an interview with the New York Post. 

During his time cooking for the two popes, he shared that in his eyes “every pope is a normal person,” and “[w]hile John Paul was very charismatic, for me the best was Benedict.”

He added that while during the last years of John Paul II’s life he had a very light diet, Benedict was a fan of his meatballs and schnitzel. 

“His eyes were magnetic, and his voice to me was God in the world,” Lo Castro said of Pope Benedict.

Lo Castro’s experience cooking meals for notable figures doesn’t end with popes. He’s cooked for Moammar Gadhafi, the Saudi royal family, and actors Tom Cruise and Robert De Niro, among others. He will soon welcome Leonardo DiCaprio and tennis champion Roger Federer into his new restaurant for an event with the brand Rolex.

“Normally, for other people, it is not normal, but for me, it doesn’t matter if I’m cooking for a pope, president, or ordinary person,” Lo Castro said. “Every man I cook for is a king, and every woman I cook for is a queen.”

The chef also pointed out that while he typically freely invents new dishes for his menu, during Church holidays his menu has the least amount of leeway.

“Every religious period for the Catholic Church, like Christmas, is very strict when it comes to what food to serve,” he said. “On Easter, for example, I’d prepare lamb and it’s all very traditional.”

As for the future, Lo Castro said he hopes to open more restaurants around the world.

“My biggest satisfaction is that I came from a small town, and now I’m cooking for the world,” he said. “But at the same time, I’m still a very normal man.”

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CNA Staff, Aug 25, 2025 / 14:36 pm (CNA).

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) and the Catholic Health Association have voiced their “strong support” for the Palliative Care and Hospice Education and Training Act, a bipartisan bill reintroduced in the Senate last month by Sens. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wisconsin, and Shelley Moore Capito, R-West Virginia.

In a letter to Senate committee leaders, Archbishop Borys Gudziak, chairman of the USCCB Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development; Bishop Daniel Thomas, chairman of the Committee on Pro-Life Activities; and Catholic Health Association President and CEO Sister Mary Haddad emphasized the legislation’s potential to address critical gaps in palliative care access while aligning with the Catholic Church’s moral teachings.

The bill aims to expand access to palliative care, a medical approach focused on improving quality of life for seriously ill patients near the end of life through pain and symptom management, emotional support, and care coordination.

The letter cited the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith’s (CDF) Samaritanus Bonus (On the Care of Persons in the Critical and Terminal Phases of Life): “Palliative care is an authentic expression of the human and Christian activity of providing care, the tangible symbol of the compassionate ‘remaining’ at the side of the suffering person.”

In their letter, the Catholic leaders highlighted three major barriers to broader access to such care: a shortage of trained palliative care professionals, limited research funding for advancing best practices, and low awareness among both the public and health care providers about the role and timing of palliative care.

The Palliative Care and Hospice Education and Training Act seeks to address these challenges by funding training programs for health care professionals, supporting research to improve palliative care practices, and promoting public education campaigns. If passed, the legislation would allocate resources to expand the workforce of palliative care specialists and enhance care delivery for patients with chronic or terminal illnesses.

Gudziak, the archbishop of the Ukrainian Catholic Arechparchy of Philadelphia; Thomas, the Bishop of Toldeo, Ohio; and Haddad praised the bill’s inclusion of language ensuring compliance with the Assisted Suicide Funding Restriction Act of 1997, which prohibits federal funds from being used for assisted suicide or euthanasia.

“Importantly, the bill includes essential language affirming that all supported programs must comply with the Assisted Suicide Funding Restriction Act of 1997 and may not be used to cause or assist in causing a patient’s death under any circumstance,” they wrote.

The bill’s endorsement comes amid growing national attention to end-of-life care, with Catholic leaders advocating for approaches that prioritize the compassion and dignity of palliative care without the moral offenses of euthanasia or assisted suicide.

The Church teaches that “human life is a sacred gift from God that must be protected and respected at every stage,” the letter said. The USCCB’s Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services and the CDF’s 1980 Declaration on Euthanasia teach that euthanasia is “an action or an omission” on the part of health care providers “which of itself or by intention causes death, in order that all suffering may in this way be eliminated.” Assisted suicide occurs when a health care provider assists a patient to end his or her own life. 

Oregon was the first state to legalize assisted suicide in 1997. The practice is now legal in 10 states and in Washington, D.C.

In another two states — Montana and New York — legislation that could legalize the practice is still pending. New York’s legislation awaits the signature of that state’s governor, while pro-life voices such as New York’s Cardinal Timothy Dolan are outspoken against the bill.

Originally introduced in 2022, when more than 50 groups endorsed it, the legislation is currently under review by the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee.

On July 16, Reps. Earl “Buddy” Carter, R-Georgia, and Ami Bera, D-California, introduced an identical, companion bill in the U.S. House of Representatives.

The campus of Crown College in Minnesota. / Credit: Clappert, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Aug 25, 2025 / 14:06 pm (CNA).

A federal judge has ruled that Christian colleges that require students to sign a statement of faith cannot be excluded from a Minnesota program that lets high school students take college courses for credit.

On Friday, Aug. 22, United States District Judge Nancy Brasel ruled that the law banning religious institutions from the Minnesota Postsecondary Enrollment Options (PSEO) program is an unconstitutional violation of religious freedom. 

The 40-year-old PSEO program has long served high schoolers in the state by promoting academic pursuits at both secular and religious colleges. It allows sophomore, junior, and senior high school students to take college courses at the school of their choosing and covers the cost of tuition and required classroom materials.

Religious colleges, including Crown College in St. Bonifacius and the University of Northwestern in Roseville, were banned because they require their students to pledge to follow school religious values and rules. They also do not allow students who are not Christian or who identify as LGBT.

Since 2019, the state’s Department of Education had sought to apply such a ban and eventually succeeded in 2023, when Democrats gained control of both houses of the Legislature. The ban on participation in the program by religious schools with faith statement requirements was enacted through a broader education funding bill signed by Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz.

Subsequently, the two colleges and parents of high school students who wished to partake in the program at the Christian schools sued to overturn the law. The group was represented by the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, which argued the law violated religious freedom under the First Amendment.

After Becket filed the lawsuit, Minnesota promised not to enforce the law while the case was ongoing. More than two years after filing the suit, Brasel ruled in favor of the colleges and parents. 

Brasel said the court had to “venture into the delicate constitutional interplay of religion and publicly‐funded education.” She said the First Amendment “gives special solicitude to the rights of religious organizations,” and states can’t disqualify private schools “solely because they’re religious.”

Brasel also threw out a related nondiscrimination requirement that prohibited participating schools from basing admission to the program on gender, sexual orientation, or religious beliefs.

A young pro-lifer holds a sign that says “No human is a mistake” at the Colorado March for Life in Denver on Friday, April 11, 2025. / Credit: Kate Quiñones/CNA

CNA Staff, Aug 25, 2025 / 09:00 am (CNA).

When it comes to unborn life, only 19 states in the U.S. protect unborn children from abortion during the first trimester of their lives. As far as assisted suicide goes, in 10 states as well as the District of Columbia, it is legal. And in about half of U.S. states, the death penalty is legal.

CNA is unveiling three new interactive maps to show where each state in the U.S. stands on life issues. The maps will be updated as new information on each issue becomes available.

Here’s an analysis of the maps and of the laws around life issues across the United States as of August 2025.

Abortion

After the overturn of Roe v. Wade, abortion legislation returned to the states. But in 2024, Americans had more than 1 million abortions, according to the latest data.

Twelve states now protect life throughout pregnancy with some exceptions. Soon after Roe was overturned in 2022, Texas prohibited almost all abortions, leading the charge alongside a few other states whose pro-life trigger laws went into effect.

Seven states protect unborn children within the first trimester, usually at the times when the child’s heartbeat can be detected, which is about five to six weeks. Ohio led the charge for heartbeat legislation — laws that protect unborn children once a heartbeat can be detected. Florida also passed a heartbeat law in 2023 under Gov. Ron DeSantis. Nebraska passed a pro-life constitutional amendment protecting life after 12 weeks.

In 18 states, laws protect life after 18-24 weeks. Most of these states protect life only after “fetal viability,” the time when a baby can survive outside the womb with medical support. Viability is usually estimated to be between 22 and 23 weeks by most doctors, but it continues to advance thanks to improving technology. For instance, a baby born last year celebrated his first birthday after being born at 21 weeks.

Abortion is legal up to birth in nine states and Washington, D.C. Alaska, Colorado, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, and Vermont have no protections for unborn children at any stage of development. In most of these states, taxpayer dollars fund abortion.

Several states have passed ballot measures in recent years declaring a “right to abortion” or “reproductive freedom” under the state constitution. These states include Arizona, California, Colorado, Michigan, Missouri, Montana, and New York. In states with a right to abortion, the constitutional amendments leave room to expand already existing laws. While California currently allows abortion up to viability and up to birth in cases of the mother’s life or health, pro-life advocates warn that the constitutional right to abortion could lead to an expansion of abortion in the state.

Four states have ongoing litigation over abortion laws, including in Missouri, where courts are determining how the state’s constitutional right to abortion will be enforced. In 2024, Montana also approved a constitutional right to abortion in 2024 that is currently being challenged in court. Abortion laws in North Dakota and Wyoming are also in flux.

Assisted suicide

Assisted suicide — sometimes also called physician-assisted suicide — is when a doctor or medical professional provides a patient with drugs to end his or her own life. It is to be differentiated from euthanasia, which is the direct killing of a patient by a medical professional.

The term euthanasia includes voluntary euthanasia, a practice legal in some parts of the world when the patient requests to die; involuntary euthanasia is when a person is murdered against his or her wishes, and “nonvoluntary” euthanasia is when the person is not capable of giving consent. 

Assisted suicide is legal in some U.S. states and around the world, while voluntary euthanasia is legal in a limited number of countries including Belgium, Canada, Colombia, Ecuador, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Spain, and Portugal. In Belgium and the Netherlands, minors can be euthanized if they request it.

In Canada, patients with any serious illness, disease, or disability may be eligible for what is known as medical aid in dying (MAID), even when their condition is not terminal or fatal. In 2027 Canada plans to allow MAID for those with mental health conditions; Belgium, Luxembourg, and Colombia already allow for this.

While most U.S. states have laws against assisted suicide, a growing number of state legislatures have attempted to legalize it.

Thirty-eight states in the U.S. have laws against assisted suicide. Some states specify that assisted suicide is illegal, while other state codes say they do not “authorize” assisted suicide.

Other states maintain laws that were enacted before assisted suicide was popularized in the late 1990s. Often, these states ban the practice of “assisting suicide.”

Some states have established newer legislation against the practice in recent decades including Maryland, Michigan, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Utah, and Virginia.

The state of West Virginia has taken the lead in opposing assisted suicide. In 2024, the state became the first to approve a constitutional amendment banning assisted suicide.

In 10 states and in Washington, D.C., assisted suicide is legal. Oregon was the first state to legalize assisted suicide in 1997.

In another two states — Montana and New York — legislation that could legalize the practice is still pending. New York’s legislation awaits the signature of the state governor, while pro-life voices such as Catholic Cardinal Timothy Dolan are outspoken against the bill.

Death penalty

The United States is split on the death penalty, which is also known as capital punishment. Twenty-three states have the death penalty, while 23 states have abolished it. In the remaining four states, executions have been temporarily paused via executive action, but the death penalty has not been abolished.

Of the states that have abolished the death penalty, Michigan took the lead, becoming the first state to abolish the death penalty in 1847. Alaska and Hawaii — both newer states — have never had the death penalty.

Five states (Idaho, Mississippi, Oklahoma, South Carolina, and Utah) allow the death penalty via firing squad as an alternative to lethal injection.

The federal death penalty can be used for certain federal crimes in all 50 states as well as U.S. territories.

A total of 16 federal executions have occurred since the modern federal death penalty was instituted in 1988. The federal death penalty was found unconstitutional in the Supreme Court’s decision Furman v. Georgia in 1972 but was later reinstated for certain offenses and then expanded by the Federal Death Penalty Act of 1994. In 2024, President Joe Biden commuted the sentences of 37 men, leaving three men on death row.

Where does the Catholic Church stand on life issues?

On abortion: The Catholic Church opposes direct abortions in all cases, teaching that human life must be protected at all stages. The Catechism of the Catholic Church states: “Human life must be respected and protected absolutely from the moment of conception” (CCC, 2270).

“Since the first century the Church has affirmed the moral evil of every procured abortion,” the catechism says. “This teaching has not changed and remains unchangeable” (CCC, 2271).

Notably, the Church does not teach that the life of the child must be preferred to the life of the mother but rather instructs doctors “to make every effort to save the lives of both, of the mother and the child.”

On assisted suicide: The Catholic Church condemns both assisted suicide and euthanasia, instead encouraging palliative care. 

The Church advocates for a “special respect” for anyone with a disability or serious condition (CCC, 2276). Any action or lack of action that intentionally “causes death in order to eliminate suffering constitutes a murder gravely contrary to the dignity of the human person and to the respect due to the living God, his Creator,” the catechism reads (CCC, 2277).

On the death penalty: In 2018, the Vatican developed the Church’s teaching on the death penalty, with Pope Francis updating the Catechism of the Catholic Church to reflect that the death penalty is “inadmissible” in the contemporary landscape. 

St. John Paul II’s previous teaching in the catechism permitted the death penalty in “very rare” cases, saying that “cases of absolute necessity for suppression of the offender ‘today ... are very rare, if not practically nonexistent” (CCC, 2267, pre-2018).