Holy Cross Catholic Church

Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt speaks to attendees at the 2022 Student Action Summit at the Tampa Convention Center in Tampa, Florida. / Credit: Gage Skidmore from Surprise, AZ, United States of America, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

CNA Staff, Apr 1, 2025 / 15:34 pm (CNA).

Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt this week signed an executive order instructing state officials to ensure Oklahoma’s laws are “the most robust” in the nation at protecting religious freedom, with the governor also criticizing the state attorney general for attempting to block a proposed Catholic charter school there.

The order, announced on Monday, initiates a review of various state laws and policies to ensure they comply with religious freedom protections enshrined in both the U.S. Constitution and the Oklahoma Constitution.

The directive explicitly targets several state laws, including one requiring charter schools to be “nonsectarian” in their operations.

The order comes just weeks after the U.S. Supreme Court began considering a proposed Oklahoma school that could be the nation’s first publicly-funded religious charter school. 

Oklahoma’s St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School was approved by the state charter school board to open in 2023, but state Attorney General Gentner Drummond filed a lawsuit against the charter school board, arguing the charter school’s existence would constitute state support of a religion.

The ongoing litigation has since reached the U.S. Supreme Court, where the landmark decision could reshape school choice and religious freedom in the U.S.

Drummond criticized the governor’s religious freedom order this week, citing concerns that taxpayers could be forced to support other religious institutions. 

“Gov. Stitt has been clear that he supports our tax dollars funding radical Muslim schools teaching sharia law, and I couldn’t disagree with him more,” Drummond said in a March 31 statement. 

“If a taxpayer-funded religious charter school is allowed to open in Oklahoma, it will only be a matter of time before taxpayers are funding schools dedicated to sharia law, Wicca indoctrination, scientology instruction — even the Church of Satan,” he alleged. 

“As a devoted Christian and a strong supporter of religious liberty, I can tell you that the only way to protect religious liberty is for the state not to sponsor any religion at all — just like our Founding Fathers intended,” Drummond continued.

Stitt in his executive order explicitly criticized what he calls Drummond’s “apparent hostility to religious liberty.”

“By filing lawsuits seeking to prevent the nation’s first religious charter school [from] opening its doors, Oklahoma’s attorney general has fought against Oklahomans’ religious liberty with a zeal and aggressiveness that suggests animosity towards religion and religious liberty,” Stitt wrote.

Stitt’s executive order further requires that state officials not restrict access to public programs on the basis of a person’s or entity’s religious nature.

The executive order instructs “that no individual or entity shall be excluded from participation in, or denied access to, any public benefit, program, or funding solely on the basis of their religious character or affiliation or intended religious use of such benefits.”

“Religious freedom is foundational to our way of life in Oklahoma,” Stitt said this week. “It’s not a privilege handed out by the government — it’s a God-given right that the government must protect.”

“We will not stand by while faith-based organizations — including faith-based schools — are pushed to the sidelines by activist bureaucrats or hostile politicians,” he said.

An EF2 tornado in the early hours of March 31, 2025, in Grand Prairie, Louisiana, tore off the roof of the St. Peter Parish catechism building. / Credit: Photo courtesy of Debbie LaFleur

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Apr 1, 2025 / 15:01 pm (CNA).

A Louisiana parish suffered major damage to its property after a tornado passed through during the early hours of Monday morning.

Debbie LaFleur, secretary of St. Peter Catholic Church in Grand Prairie, Louisiana, told CNA the roof of the parish catechism building was torn off and that several fallen tree limbs fell onto the rectory, causing the above-ground structure to shift on its pillars. The rectory and catechism building were built in 1950 and 1970, respectively. 

The catwalk between the rectory and the church, a carport, and the awning over a handicap ramp will all need to be replaced, LaFleur said. She also noted that several of the parish’s “very old” oak trees had been damaged or fallen down and that several headstones in its cemetery had been knocked down as well.

The only building that did not suffer any damage on account of the category EF2 tornado was the church itself. 

“The church was not touched,” LaFleur stated. “Father Jude [Halphen] says that our saints, our relics, helped protect us.” 

St. Peter’s church houses numerous relics, including those of Blessed Carlos Acutis, St. Peter, St. Paul, and St. Elizabeth Ann Seton. Acutis is set to be canonized at the end of this month. 

Originally built in 1950, the church was renovated last year. Among repairs, the parish brought in a new altar from Belgium. The parish is also currently working to put up altar rails, which LaFleur said came from a now-shuttered church in Harlem. 

“Pray for us that we can rebuild and get through this with little stress,” LaFleur said.

“Our parishioners are great parishioners,” she added. “They came out and they cleaned up the mess, so that by 4 o’clock [Monday] afternoon, it was clean.” 

The parish is currently waiting on structural engineers to assess the full damage to the property and the potential cost for needed repairs.

The “Caravaggio 2025” exhibition revives the legend of the baroque genius in Rome. / Credit: Daniel Ibañez/ EWTN News

Vatican City, Apr 1, 2025 / 13:12 pm (CNA).

The adventures of Michelangelo Merisi (1571–1610), known as Caravaggio, were linked to the religious context in Rome from his earliest days as a painter.

The Ordinary Jubilee of 1600, under the papacy of Clement VIII, was a brilliant boost to his career.

That year, he received his first public commission for the Contarelli Chapel in the church of San Luigi dei Francesi (St. Louis of the French in Rome), where he painted the famous series on St. Matthew: “The Calling of St. Matthew,” “St. Matthew and the Angel,” and “The Martyrdom of St. Matthew.”

“It was a pivotal moment for Caravaggio. From that commission onward, his success grew exponentially, and his style began to influence an entire generation of artists,” Thomas Clement Salomon told ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner.

Clement Salomon is one of the three curators of the Caravaggio 2025 exhibition, organized by the Palazzo Barberini, of which he is director, and the National Galleries of Classical Art.

The extraordinary retrospective exhibit, which runs until July 6, will feature 24 of Caravaggio’s works, including two previously unseen paintings, “Portrait of Maffeo Barberini” and “Ecce Homo” — which was exhibited at the Prado Museum in Madrid and discovered only a few years ago — and is in a sense a kind of homage to the holy year.

“The jubilee is a special moment for Rome, and Caravaggio is an artist who has a very strong connection with the city,” Clement Salomon explained.

In fact, the exhibition also represents a symbolic return for the artist to the city that shaped his destiny. “Although he was born in Milan, Rome was his true home. Here he achieved success, here he had his most important patrons, and here he left an indelible mark,” the director emphasized.

The exhibition is divided into four sections covering Caravaggio’s entire artistic life, spanning approximately 15 years, from his arrival in Rome around 1595, through Naples, Sicily, and Malta, until his return to Rome and death in Porto Ercole in 1610.

Conceived as part of the cultural events of the Jubilee of Hope, the exhibition is also a unique opportunity to appreciate Caravaggio’s predilection for reality, which made him one of the Catholic Church’s favorites for depicting biblical events.

“He was the first painter to paint things as they are, not beauty. He rejected Renaissance idealism and chose to paint real models: friends, lovers, common people,” the curator explained.

This extreme realism, however, was not without controversy. On several occasions, his works were rejected by patrons or the Catholic Church itself for their crudeness. “When he painted ‘The Death of the Virgin’ for Santa Maria della Scala church, they refused to accept it because, it was said, he had used a deceased prostitute as a model,” the director related.

In any case, the religious genre takes on a special intensity in his work. A stroll through the Church of San Luigi dei Francesi (St. Louis of the French in Rome) and a pause in front of the three canvases of St. Matthew painted by the artist is enough to understand the mystery of the Christian faith.

“He is an artist who, through his painting, allows us to enter the scene he depicts. He is a bridge between sacred history and the viewer. His way of illuminating Gospel episodes allows us to experience them intensely,” the expert noted. An example of this is the work “St. Francis in Ecstasy,” the first example of the artist’s religious work in Rome.

The works created specifically for this church and those of Santa Maria del Popolo church are not part of the exhibition. “We haven’t asked for loans from the churches because that would distort their purpose,” explained Clement Salomon, who added that, in any case, there is a guide within the exhibition that shows pilgrims the ideal itinerary to discover the profound spirituality of Caravaggio’s works.

Caravaggio’s turbulent personal life has contributed to his image as a tormented artist. Impulsive in nature, he was involved in numerous disputes, the most serious of which was the murder of Ranuccio Tomassoni in 1606, which forced him to flee Rome. “After that episode, his painting changed. It became darker, more introspective, as if his own personal torment were reflected in his works,” Clement Salomon explained.

An example is “The Capture of Christ,” on loan for the Caravaggio 2025 exhibition from the National Gallery in Dublin. “It’s a stunning painting. You feel as if you’re inside the scene, watching Judas betray Jesus. Caravaggio even paints a self-portrait in the work, depicting himself illuminating the scene with a lantern. It’s a testament to his narrative genius,” Clement Salomon commented.

Although Caravaggio spent most of his life in Rome, his works are now scattered all over the world, from New York to London. Thus getting galleries to loan paintings for the current exhibition has been a challenge.

“Getting a Caravaggio is like getting someone extradited,” Clement Salomon joked. “Each painting is worth hundreds of millions of euros, and they are the jewels of the collections that house them. Museums don’t want to part with them, even temporarily.”

Despite these difficulties, the exhibition features works from important institutions such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Detroit Museum, the Kansas City Museum, and private collections that rarely allow access to their works.

“It’s a unique opportunity to see these paintings together and make unprecedented comparisons,” the curator noted.

New discoveries and scientific debate

Another objective of Caravaggio 2025 is to update knowledge about the artist.

“The dating of his paintings remains a matter of debate,” Clement Salomon explained. “For example, ‘Ecce Homo,’ which was believed to have been painted in Rome, could have been done during his Neapolitan period. The exhibition will allow us to analyze his style and technique in detail.”

The painting, discovered in Madrid, was actually painted in Naples (1606–1609), and in the exhibition it has been placed alongside one of Caravaggio’s masterpieces, “The Scourging.”

Another recent discovery is the “Portrait of Maffeo Barberini,” the future Pope Urban VIII, which is being exhibited to the public for the first time.

“It’s an indisputable masterpiece, but we’ve also included another portrait attributed to Caravaggio that continues to generate controversy among experts. We want the exhibition to serve as a forum for scientific discussion,” the expert said.

In addition, Caravaggio 2025 features other exceptional works such as “The Conversion of Saint Paul,”an earlier version of the famous Santa Maria del Popolo painting, which comes from the Odescalchi collection.

“It’s a unique opportunity to see this masterpiece, which is not normally accessible to the public,” Clement Salomon said.

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.

Pope Francis prays during his Wednesday general audience on Feb. 5, 2025, in the Paul VI Audience Hall at the Vatican. / Credit: Vatican Media

CNA Staff, Apr 1, 2025 / 12:12 pm (CNA).

Pope Francis’ prayer intention for the month of April is for the use of new technologies. 

“How I would like for us to look less at screens and look each other in the eyes more,” the pope said in a prerecorded video released April 1. “Something’s wrong if we spend more time on our cellphones than with people. The screen makes us forget that there are real people behind it who breathe, laugh, and cry.”

He added: “It’s true, technology is the fruit of the intelligence God gave us. But we need to use it well. It can’t benefit only a few while excluding others.”

Pope Francis encouraged the faithful to “use technology to unite, not to divide. To help the poor. To improve the lives of the sick and persons with different abilities. Use technology to care for our common home. To connect as brothers and sisters.”

“It’s when we look at each other in the eyes that we discover what really matters: that we are brothers, sisters, children of the same Father,” he said.

He concluded with a prayer: “Let us pray that the use of the new technologies will not replace human relationships, will respect the dignity of the person, and will help us face the crises of our times.”

Pope Francis’ prayer video is promoted by the Pope’s Worldwide Prayer Network, which raises awareness of monthly papal prayer intentions.

null / Credit: ElenaR/Shutterstock

CNA Staff, Apr 1, 2025 / 11:35 am (CNA).

A former bookkeeper at two New Jersey Catholic parishes has been accused of stealing nearly $300,000 from the two churches over the course of several years. 

Morris County, New Jersey, Prosecutor Robert Carroll’s office said in a Friday press release that Melissa Rivera had been charged with “theft in connection to her former role as bookkeeper” in the parishes of Our Lady of the Mountain and Our Lady of Good Counsel, both located in Morris County. 

Rivera was accused of stealing $292,728 from both parishes, the prosecutor’s office said. She was allegedly creating fake checks at both parishes and then depositing them to her bank accounts. 

The alleged thefts occurred between May 2018 and May 2024, the press release said. Rivera was charged with multiple counts of theft and forgery. 

After being charged she was “released pending future court proceedings,” according to the press release. The county financial crimes unit contributed to the case, the prosecutor said. 

Several Catholic officials have faced prosecution and jail time in recent years over thefts from their respective parishes. 

A bookkeeper at a Florida Catholic parish was sentenced in November 2024 to more than two years of federal prison after stealing nearly $900,000 from the church at which she managed financial records. 

In July 2024, meanwhile, a priest in Missouri pleaded guilty to stealing $300,000 from a church at which he was pastor for nearly a decade.

That same month, a former Catholic parish employee in Alabama pleaded guilty to stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars from her church in order to send money to TikTok content creators. 

And in May 2024 a former employee at a Tampa, Florida, Catholic church pleaded guilty to stealing more than three-quarters of a million dollars from the parish while employed there.

Pope Francis gives a thumbs up gesture from his window at Gemelli Hospital in Rome during his first public appearance in weeks on Sunday, March 23, 2025. / Credit: Screenshot/Vatican Media

Vatican City, Apr 1, 2025 / 09:44 am (CNA).

Pope Francis shared on Monday that he has experienced the gift of Christian joy during the challenges of his current illness, as the Vatican says the pope’s condition has continued to improve after his monthlong stay in the hospital.

In a message to an Italian synodal assembly March 31, the pontiff said joy “is God’s gift — let us always remember it; it is not an easy joy, it does not come from convenient solutions to problems, it does not avoid the cross, but it springs from the certainty that the Lord never leaves us alone.”

“I have experienced this myself in hospitalization, and now in this time of convalescence,” he added. “Christian joy is reliance on God in every situation in life.”

In an April 1 update about the 88-year-old pontiff’s continued recovery from double pneumonia and other lung infections, the Holy See Press Office said Pope Francis’ lung infection, mobility, and voice continue to improve, with the pontiff concelebrating daily Mass every morning and working from his desk.

The pope’s clinical outlook remains “stable,” the Vatican said, with a recent chest X-ray showing small improvements in the lung infection. He continues to receive oxygen support via nasal tubes during the day, including high-flow oxygen at night and as needed, and can go short periods without the tubes.

Francis has received no visitors since his March 23 return to his Vatican apartment in the Santa Marta Guesthouse, where he receives 24-hour assistance from medical personnel.

The pontiff is expected to spend at least two months recuperating after passing 38 days inside the 10th-floor papal suite of Rome’s Gemelli Hospital — by far the longest hospitalization of his pontificate.

While the pope’s engagements with the public are canceled during his convalescence, he continues to release written missives, including the text for what was previously his weekly Wednesday morning audience, and a message to the participants in a synodal assembly of the Church in Italy.

Reflecting on Christian joy, the pope in his message emphasized joy’s accompanying and welcoming style, stating that “it is fulfilled in the folds of everyday life and in sharing.”

Italian Catholics are gathered in Rome from March 31 to April 3 for the second synodal assembly, the last part of a five-year process for the Church in Italy. Pope Francis asked the assembly’s participants to “continue to pray for me.”

On Tuesday, the pontiff named Cardinal Fabio Baggio, CS, the newest member of APSA, the office that oversees the real estate and financial portfolios of the Holy See.

He also appointed Cardinal Mario Grech, general secretary of the synod, as his special envoy to a May 25 ceremony in Luxembourg for the closing celebrations of a Marian jubilee commemorating 400 years of devotion to the country’s patroness, Mary, Consoler of the Afflicted.

Pope Francis himself opened the year during a one-day visit to the country, the European Union’s second-smallest, on Sept. 26, 2024.

Father José Luis Quijano is one of the 500 priests who participated in the March 28-30, 2025, Jubilee of Priests Instituted as Missionaries of Mercy. / Credit: Daniel Ibañez/EWTN News

Vatican City, Apr 1, 2025 / 07:00 am (CNA).

In 2016, when Pope Francis instituted the ministry of the Missionaries of Mercy during the extraordinary holy year, Argentine priest José Luis Quijano never imagined that the pope’s initiative would renew his priestly zeal. With more than three decades of ministry, he thought he’d already learned everything.

“I wasn’t a priest just going through the motions; I was always very pastoral, but this meant an authentic renewal in the inner fiber of my ministry,” he explained to ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner, nine years after having personally received from the pontiff the task of imparting God the Father’s infinite forgiveness on a daily basis.

“Mercy is not for those who are squeaky clean, for those who are good or just. That’s easy. The recipient of mercy is the evil person, the one who has committed horrible deeds, the one who doesn’t deserve it,” he explained.

Those are not empty words. Even before receiving this mission of mercy, the priest of the Archdiocese of Buenos Aires had made a radical decision: to accompany a former priest in prison who was convicted of pedophilia.

Those were 20 years in which, despite the difficulties, he never doubted that his mission was to remain by the side of that man forever tainted by a terrible crime.

“When you visit a prisoner with these characteristics, the person doesn’t speak. We spent hours and hours in silence. Afterward, every so often, he was transferred to another prison. Sometimes I had to drive 185 miles to see him, and once there, they would deny me entry,” he recounted, noting that his only motivation was the words of the Gospel: “I was in prison and you came to visit me.”

Quijano had met the priest in the early 1990s, and although he was never aware of the abuse, he had perceived in him certain worrying attitudes that denoted a life that was “hardly in order,” he noted, without wishing to go into detail. In 1997, the scandal came to light. The priest involved, who was later laicized, admitted his guilt, was prosecuted, convicted, and served two decades in prison.

“When I saw Pope Francis’ call to the Missionaries of Mercy, I asked myself: When in my life was I truly merciful? Because being good, being tolerant, being cordial, is easy with those we like. But true mercy is loving those who don’t deserve it,” Quijano reflected. He was also quite aware that the harm inflicted by the former priest on the victims is irreparable and that divine forgiveness does not erase the consequences of human actions.

“Here we must note the difference between two things. One is forgiveness and the experience of God’s mercy in the heart. And the other is experiencing the world’s rejection. Even if a person repents, society’s condemnation remains,” he explained.

When the former priest finished serving his sentence and was released, he encountered the wall of exclusion. He couldn’t get a new start in life. It was impossible for him to find work or reintegrate into society. He ended up changing his name and moving to a city where no one knew him.

“Even though he may have repented internally in his intimate dialogue with God, that doesn’t exempt him from the harshness of life and the resistance of a world that will always continue to condemn him. In a certain way, the perpetrator is also a victim,” Quijano commented, not seeking to downplay the crimes but rather to highlight the complexity of forgiveness.

In this sense, for him, mercy must encompass “both the victims and the perpetrators.”

“Being a Missionary of Mercy doesn’t just mean administering the sacrament of confession but also living out mercy with others, even when it’s difficult, when it hurts, when it seems impossible,” he explained.

A broader vision of the priesthood

During these nine years as a Missionary of Mercy priest, Quijano participated in several meetings at the Vatican as part of his formation. In these meetings fundamental topics related to legal issues were discussed, such as how far the missionary authority goes and how they should exercise their ministry in relation to local ecclesiastical authorities, the bishops.

“In Rome, Pope Francis broadened our vision of the ministry. He reminded us that mercy is not just an act but a way of living the priesthood. It’s not just absolving sins; it’s bringing God’s forgiveness to all, without exception,” he recounted.

Quijano remains convinced that mercy is the greatest legacy Pope Francis has left within the Catholic Church.

“Everyone should look in the mirror and ask themselves: When did I truly exercise mercy? Not just forgive in words, but love someone who didn’t deserve it,” he emphasized. 

Quijano is one of the 500 priests who participated this past weekend in the Jubilee of Priests Instituted as “Missionaries of Mercy,” the sixth major event in the 2025 Jubilee.

Pope Francis was not able to accompany them due to his ongoing convalescence at St. Martha’s House after spending 38 days in Gemelli Hospital.

However, he sent a written message to impart his blessing to the priests, who came from countries such as Italy, the United States, Poland, Brazil, Spain, France, Mexico, Germany, Slovakia, the Philippines, Bangladesh, Ukraine, Colombia, and India, among others.

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.

On April 2, 2025, the Augustine Institute will release its second documentary in its “Based on a True Saint” series, which airs on its faith formation streaming platform Formed. The latest installment in the series, “The Boy from Milan,” focuses on soon-to-be saint Carlo Acutis. / Credit: The Augustine Institute

CNA Staff, Apr 1, 2025 / 06:00 am (CNA).

On April 2, the Augustine Institute will release its second documentary in its “Based on a True Saint” series, which airs on its faith formation streaming platform Formed. The latest installment in the series, “The Boy from Milan,” focuses on soon-to-be saint Carlo Acutis.

The film aims to help viewers get to know the Church’s first millennial saint better and show how an ordinary teenager with a deep love for God and other people can became a saint. 

The documentary includes interviews with three individuals who knew Acutis personally: his mother, Antonia Salzano Acutis; his high school religion teacher at Leone XIII Institute in Milan, Fabrizio Zaggia; and Dr. Mercedes Arguello, Acutis’ pediatric oncologist at San Gerardo Hospital in Monza.

Emily Mentock, executive producer of “The Boy from Milan” and co-founder of Digital Continent — the production company that worked in partnership with the Augustine Institute — spoke to CNA about the inspiration behind the film and why she believes Acutis is resonating with so many people around the world.

She explained that Acutis was the inspiration behind the “Based on a True Saint” series in the first place. The first documentary in the series was about Blessed Solanus Casey. In each film in the series, the goal is to answer the question “Is holiness possible today?”

“I was thinking of Carlo and the way he is presented to the world when we came up with the idea for the series as a whole because I just kept hearing how I should care about the saint because he’s a millennial like me and played video games, but that doesn’t tell me anything about the path to holiness,” Mentock shared. “So, I was really just grateful for the opportunity to dive deeper into his story and hear from people who really knew him, not just about him, what he was really like on a daily basis.”

Mentock said she believes Acutis’ popularity stems from the fact that “he’s relevant, he lived in our time,” and this gives people “hope for believing that we can also maybe achieve holiness.”

“Sometimes you look around at our world today and wonder, is this [holiness] really possible? And Carlo shows us that it is, absolutely,” she added.

While filming and getting to know Acutis better, Mentock came to admire his love for life and how “he looked at life as his field to put into practice the teachings of Jesus.”

She also pointed out how all of the individuals shown in the film were greatly impacted by knowing Acutis personally, especially Arguello, his pediatric oncologist, who found strength in Acutis’ testimony when she herself received a cancer diagnosis. 

“It never ceases to amaze me that it was so evident how they were living differently and in a different relationship with God because of how Carlo had helped them turn toward God,” she said.

Mentock said she hopes the film will leave viewers inspired by Acutis’ “daily holiness.”

“I think that Carlo can inspire anyone, but I do think that he especially is a gift for young, young people today to look around and say, it doesn’t matter if you’re 10 years old, 12 years old, 14 years old — you can go out and make a difference, live your life boldly for the Lord, and Carlo’s a great example for that,” she said.

EWTN has also released a documentary on Acutis titled “I Am With You,” which can be seen on EWTN On Demand.

null / Credit: Wolfgang Schaller/Shutterstock

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Mar 31, 2025 / 16:40 pm (CNA).

Several U.S. Supreme Court justices across ideological lines during oral arguments Monday morning expressed concerns about a Wisconsin agency’s refusal to legally recognize a Catholic charity — run by the Diocese of Superior — as a religious organization.

The dispute between Catholic Charities Bureau (CCB) and the Wisconsin Labor and Industry Review Commission (LIRC) will determine whether the charity is required to pay taxes into the state’s unemployment system or whether the organization can enroll workers in the Church-run unemployment system and avoid the tax.

State law allows organizations “operated primarily for religious purposes” to qualify for the tax exemption if it provides its own unemployment system. Yet, the LIRC asserts that CCB is not operated primarily for a religious purpose because it offers charitable services to people of all faiths and does not focus its efforts on converting the people it serves to Catholicism.

Religious freedom advocates have warned that the denial of CCB’s recognition as a religious entity could have a ripple effect that leads to the denial of other legal rights afforded to religious organizations, such as exemptions from mandates that conflict with an organization’s religious beliefs.

Justices challenge Wisconsin’s position

Colin Roth, assistant attorney general for the Wisconsin Department of Justice, told the justices during the March 31 oral arguments that CCB functions similar to a secular charity because of the lack of proselytization — a position that was challenged by justices who were appointed by both major political parties.

When justices repeatedly pressed Roth to give examples of what sort of “proselytization” would qualify CCB for an exemption, he suggested that asking patrons to “please repent” or “please join our religion” while delivering services would likely be sufficient.

In a more specific example, Roth said instructing a patron to say the Lord’s Prayer with a worker or volunteer while receiving food at a soup kitchen would add the proselytization component.

“That type of job function is tethered to religious doctrine,” Roth said.

Justice Clarence Thomas, who is Catholic, asked Roth why expressing the statement “we believe deeply in the corporal works of mercy” wouldn’t be sufficient, adding: “Why is there a difference?”

Roth acknowledged that charity is essential to the Catholic faith but said the corporal works of mercy are “not expressing or inculcating religious doctrine.”

Justice Amy Coney Barrett, who is Catholic, and Justice Elena Kagan, who is Jewish, both emphasized that proselytization is not a component of all religious acts and not even part of some religions.

Barrett noted that many sects of Judaism do not “have that as a component” and the standard supported by Wisconsin “will inevitably exclude certain religions.” Kagan agreed, saying it is “fundamental” that the government does not “treat some religions better than other religions” but that Wisconsin’s standard “puts the state on the side of some religions.”

“Why are we treating some religions better than others based on that element of religious doctrine?” Kagan asked.

Roth defended Wisconsin’s position, arguing that it is not just “proselytization” that would make an organization eligible for a tax exemption here, but also if it engages in “worship” or “religious education.” 

“These are ‘ors,’” Roth said. “These are not ‘ands.’”

However, Roth emphasized that simply showing that an act is motivated by religion “does not render you eligible for the exemption.”

Eric Rassbach, a vice president and senior counsel at the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, represented CCB at the Supreme Court. 

“Wisconsin draws distinctions along theological lines — something that this court has repeatedly forbidden,” he argued.

Rassbach said the standard supported by Wisconsin would force CCB to operate its charity in an “almost coercive way” by “using [food and services] to influence people, to take advantage of people, and to exploit them.” He argued the religious exemption was denied because “they serve non-Catholics, they hire non-Catholics, and because they do not proselytize.”

“Mother Teresa might not qualify,” Rassbach said.

Where does the line get drawn?

Although the justices appeared unified in their concerns about Wisconsin’s narrow interpretation for what qualifies as a “religious purpose,” they also raised numerous questions about where the line should be drawn on what does qualify as a “religious purpose.”

Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, who is a nondenominational Protestant, raised the question of whether such exemptions would extend to a for-profit vegan restaurant launched by a minister in a religion that opposes the consumption of meat.

Barrett similarly raised the possibility of a religious institution requesting tax exemptions for the creation of a for-profit business to raise money to benefit its members or other people, asserting it “is essential to its religious mission.”

Some of the justices also expressed a need to differentiate between a religious motivation and a philosophical motivation and to have an understanding of what constitutes religion and religious belief.

Rassbach expressed some sympathy for those concerns, saying that his position was not for “limitless exemptions” without any standards. He suggested that the test should be for courts to determine whether something is motivated by a “duty that we owe and the means of discharging it.”

Barrett stated that one of the problems for the court is “figuring out what the line is.”

Cardinal Charles Bo of Yangon, Myanmar. / Credit: ACI Prensa/EWTN News

ACI Prensa Staff, Mar 31, 2025 / 15:18 pm (CNA).

Following the March 28 earthquake that struck Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam, and China, Cardinal Charles Bo, president of the Myanmar Bishops’ Conference, said the people of the Asian country now “need everything,” including peace to end the civil war.

“The people need food, shelter, medicine, and all lifesaving materials,” said Bo, the archbishop of Yangon, in an interview with Vatican News following the 7.7-magnitude earthquake in Myanmar that has so far left more than 2,000 dead and thousands more injured. In addition, in many places there is no electricity or internet, and the health system has collapsed. 

“More than anything, our people need peace, not the churning anxiety triggered by the multidimensional crisis,” emphasized the cardinal, who was traveling in his car when the earthquake struck: “We saw huge craters created on the road … It was a scary moment for all of us.”

Bo said he saw “poignant scenes of men and women rushing through the roads, seeking safety,” adding that he has “appealed to all concerned for urgent humanitarian support and unimpeded access to the affected people. I have made an earnest appeal for the ceasefire by all the groups in hostility” in the country’s civil war.

The cardinal’s main concern is the distribution of aid, which, due to the violence, “could be hindered with the disturbances of the armed groups.”

In response to the earthquake, Bo said he called for an urgent meeting and formed a response protocol named MERCI (Myanmar Earthquake Response Church Initiative) to establish an emergency appeal and response, adding that he also called for a wider meeting including Church and Caritas personnel from all affected areas.

“When nature attacks, human beings forget all their differences. Human tears unite us. We survive as species, because we can be moved by others’ tears,” he said, whether in Thailand or Myanmar, because they are “tears of fellowship.”

The cardinal then addressed his fellow countrymen and said he shares their pain. “The world feels their pain and we will stand shoulder to shoulder with all people in this moment of sorrow and help to heal their wounds and recover.”

He recalled that “we have shown this after the tsunami; we have shown that after the Nargis Cyclone in Myanmar. We will overcome because compassion is the common religion in times of natural disaster.” 

Bo said that Pope Francis’ words have been “a soothing balm of consolation” and that “despite his recent sickness,” he expressed his closeness to them with a telegram, as he has done “throughout the difficult time in the last four years.”

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.