Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary Parish

“Witnesses to Hope” is the theme for the 2025 Religious Freedom Week, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops announced June 18, 2025. / Credit: Freedom Studio/Shutterstock

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jun 18, 2025 / 18:43 pm (CNA).

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) is commemorating 2025 Religious Freedom Week with the theme “Witnesses to Hope,” according to a June 18 announcement.

Religious Freedom Week, which the USCCB first launched in 2018, begins on Monday, June 22 — the feast of Sts. Thomas More and John Fisher — and runs through Sunday, June 29 — the solemnity of Sts. Peter and Paul.

The USCCB is urging Catholics to “pray, reflect, and act to promote religious freedom” during the week. The conference is also asking the faithful to contact their senators in support of school choice in the Senate budget reconciliation bill, which could benefit Catholic schools.

In its announcement, the USCCB stated that the theme “builds on the annual [religious freedom] report released earlier this year by the conference’s Committee for Religious Liberty that highlights the impact of political polarization on religious freedom.”

The USCCB’s Jan. 16 annual report on the state of religious liberty expressed concerns about policies on immigration, gender ideology, abortion, and in vitro fertilization (IVF).

In the January report, the bishops wrote that Catholic nongovernmental organizations are being “singled out for special hostility” and referenced the El Paso-based Annunciation House, which Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is seeking to shut down. After the report was issued, President Donald Trump’s administration stripped some federal funds from Catholic organizations that provide foreign aid and domestic services for migrants.

The report also criticized proposed rules that push gender ideology onto schools and hospitals, which Trump has reversed. The bishops also expressed concerns about potential bills to impose abortion, contraception, or IVF coverage mandates for health insurance policies.

In its June 18 news release, the USCCB also announced a religious liberty essay contest the bishops organized with the Secretariat of Catholic Education and Our Sunday Visitor Institute. According to the bishops, the top essays from the competition will be published during Religious Freedom Week.

The Blessed Sacrament is seen through the window of the National Eucharistic Pilgrimage van moments before departure from St. John the Evangelist Church in Indianapolis on May 18, 2025. / Credit: Jeffrey Bruno

CNA Staff, Jun 18, 2025 / 18:23 pm (CNA).

The National Eucharistic Congress has changed the route and agenda for the conclusion of the 2025 National Eucharistic Pilgrimage in Los Angeles this Sunday, citing safety concerns. 

The culmination of the St. Katherine Drexel pilgrimage route will no longer include a Eucharistic procession through downtown Los Angeles but will instead remain on the grounds of the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels, and the festival that was to follow the procession has been canceled entirely. 

The route adjustment and festival cancellation follows recent riots in Los Angeles over deportations of unauthorized immigrants. The unrest began in early June. More than 350 people have been arrested since, and the Los Angeles mayor only recently lifted a curfew.

The change of plans is designed to ensure the safety of participants while still “providing an opportunity for the people of God to come together in prayer and community,” according to National Eucharistic Congress President Jason Shanks.

“Based upon our conversations with LAPD this week, we feel confident that this new plan ensures the safety of all involved while still bringing the Eucharistic presence of Our Lord to downtown L.A. in this intentional way,” Shanks said in a June 18 statement. 

Organizers noted that “the center of the 2025 National Eucharistic Pilgrimage is not an event but a Person.”

More than 3,000 people from around the U.S. are registered to attend the pilgrimage’s culminating June 22 Corpus Christi Mass and procession, according to organizers. The Mass will still take place at the downtown cathedral on Sunday afternoon along with the scaled-down procession.

The pilgrimage, named for St. Katharine Drexel, which follows the unprecedented four national pilgrimages that took place during the summer of 2024, is organized to bear witness to the presence of Jesus in the Eucharist. 

The 3,300-mile, 10-state trek began in mid-May in Indianapolis and included a group of eight young Catholic “Perpetual Pilgrims.”

The perpetual pilgrims have endured a lot already, encountering anti-Catholic protestors along the route. Nevertheless, the pilgrims endeavored to preserve a spirit of quiet prayer amid the rowdy protests.

According to the updated schedule released by the National Eucharistic Congress, on the final day of the St. Katharine Drexel pilgrimage route Catholics will gather for Mass at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels at 3 p.m., as originally planned. The apostolic nuncio to the United States, Cardinal Christophe Pierre, will celebrate, while Archbishop José Gomez of Los Angeles will preach the homily. Bishop Andrew Cozzens of Crookston, Minnesota, and all the Los Angeles bishops will concelebrate along with them.

The Eucharistic procession is scheduled to begin after Mass, at approximately 4:30 p.m. Rather than going through the public streets of downtown, the procession will proceed through the cathedral plaza with several stops along the way. 

The bishops will then take the Eucharistic Lord onto Temple Street — a main street in front of the cathedral, which will be closed to traffic — to bless the city. The prayerful event will conclude with a final Benediction inside the cathedral. 

Amid the changes, Shanks said “revival can’t be stopped by circumstance.”

“The flames of Eucharistic faith continue to spread nationwide,” he continued. “Now more than ever, we are calling Catholics across the country to become Eucharistic missionaries: to carry the fire of revival into your homes, your parishes, and your communities.”

An image of the Sacred Heart in the Church of the Jesu, in Rome. / Credit: Daniel Ibanez/CNA

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jun 18, 2025 / 17:53 pm (CNA).

Bishop David Bonnar of the Diocese of Youngstown, Ohio, issued a pastoral letter this month inviting all clergy, religious, and laity in the diocese to rediscover their devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus during this jubilee year.

In his third pastoral letter, titled “Take Heart! Do Not Lose Heart! Behold the Sacred Heart!”, the bishop asked the faithful, when they enter their parishes, to be “intentional” about “acknowledging and praying to the image of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.” 

“At this year’s chrism Mass, the Diocese of Youngstown gifted her priests with an image of the Sacred Heart of Jesus to display in their prayer space especially as they answer God’s call to serve with a shepherd’s heart.”

Bonnar also encouraged Catholics to “extend this same focus to the images of the Sacred Heart in our homes.”

In a press release, the diocese reported that the bishop said he was “inspired by Pope Francis’ last encyclical Dilexit Nos (‘He Loved Us’), which discusses the human and divine love of the heart of Jesus Christ.” 

Bonnar also announced in the letter that on Sept. 28, the “diocese will celebrate an enthronement of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in every church,” corresponding with the end of the 350th Jubilee for the Sacred Heart.

The diocese reported in the press release that “the enthronement ritual involves veneration … of an image of the Sacred Heart to affirm the kingship of Jesus in the life of those participating.”

“During our upcoming clergy convocation, I will celebrate with our priests an enthronement of the Sacred Heart of Jesus,” Bonnar explained in the letter. “Together as a presbyterate, we will pray to the Sacred Heart for strength and grace as we teach, sanctify, and lead the people of God in our portion of the Lord’s vineyard always with a shepherd’s heart.”

“Together, as a community of believers, we will behold the Sacred Heart of Jesus,” he wrote. “I pray that the life and love that flows from the Sacred Heart will empower us to be a more loving and unified Church.”

Bonnar’s letter also addressed how the election of Pope Leo XIV and his connection to St. Augustine has encouraged the “world to embrace and be embraced by the Sacred Heart of Jesus.”

The bishop said his hope is that “this long, intentional gaze at Jesus and his Sacred Heart” will encourage “more vocations to the priesthood, consecrated life, and married life.”

“I also pray that our commitment to the Sacred Heart of Jesus will enliven us to open our hearts more to one another in a spirit of empathy, compassion, and forgiveness so that we ourselves embody the heart of Jesus,” he said.

null / Credit: Ivanko80/Shutterstock

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jun 18, 2025 / 17:23 pm (CNA).

The abortion pill reversal (APR) drug supplied by Abortion Pill Rescue Network (APRN) has saved the lives of more than 7,000 unborn children since 2007, according to estimates from Heartbeat International.

Heartbeat International, a pro-life organization that operates APRN, announced the milestone in a June 12 article posted on “Pregnancy Help News,” a website the organization runs. 

Approximately 1,000 unborn lives have been saved over the last seven months alone, according to the organization’s numbers.

“Instead of taking a year to add another 1,000, it’s only taken about half that time,” Heartbeat International President Jor-El Godsey said in a statement, adding: “The APRN team reached 7,000 faster than expected.”

“Since November of last year, we’ve seen a marked increase in women finding us with the hope of changing the path they had previously chosen,” he added. “Milestones like this are important as we see chemical abortion exploding across the U.S. It’s only natural that with more abortions, there will be more women who regret making — or being forced into — that decision.”

APR is intended to reverse the effects of the abortion pill mifepristone and save the pregnancy.

Mifepristone, which is the first drug taken for a chemical abortion, attempts to kill the unborn child by blocking the hormone progesterone, which cuts off the child’s supply of oxygen and nutrients. A second pill, misoprostol, induces contractions to expel the child from the mother’s body.

If a woman has only taken mifepristone but has not yet taken misoprostol, the reversal drug could save her unborn child’s life by restoring the hormone progesterone. APR is often offered at pro-life pregnancy centers, also known as pregnancy resource centers.

Heartbeat International calculates the number of lives saved by combining individually tracked cases with statistical estimates, according to a spokesperson. Tracked cases, which account for thousands of lives, are women whose pregnancy was tracked after taking APR drugs.

For the unconfirmed outcomes, the group estimates the number of lives saved based on the success rate of APR drugs, which was calculated in a study by George Delgado, the medical director of Culture of Life Family Services and an APRN medical adviser.

“It’s very exciting to see that it has been successful that many times because it’s offering an option to women who begin a chemical abortion and change their minds,” Dr. Karen Poehailos, a Catholic pro-life doctor who serves on the medical advisory board for APRN, told CNA.

Poehailos, who also works as a family physician, said she has overseen more than 80 APR treatments for women. She said she still keeps in touch with the family of the first child she helped save with APR, who is now 9 years old and “doing well.”

She said APR treatments are “basically a matter of receptor competition” in which APR drugs try to restore progesterone while the mifepristone works to block it. She added that it’s “a very safe medicine to use in pregnancy” and has been prescribed by doctors to reduce the risks of miscarriages and premature labor for about 50 years.

“[Progesterone is] a very normal hormone for pregnancy and is present in large amounts throughout the pregnancy,” Poehailos noted.

Political and legal efforts to curtail access

There have been numerous political and legal efforts to curtail access to APR and restrict the operations and speech of pro-life pregnancy resource centers that often provide them.

California Attorney General Rob Bonta sued Heartbeat International and affiliated pregnancy resource centers over use of the drug. The lawsuit claimed that there is no scientific evidence to support the claim that the drugs can reverse the effects of a chemical abortion pill.

The lawsuit alleged that advertisements promoting the abortion pill reversal drugs are fraudulent and misleading, labeling the actions of pregnancy resource centers as “predatory and unlawful.”

New York Attorney General Letitia James filed a similar lawsuit in her state, claiming that pro-life pregnancy centers are engaged in false advertising in their promotion of the medicine.

Other efforts include Colorado Gov. Jared Polis signing a bill that would have banned the drug had it not been halted by a judge. Additionally, the Massachusetts Department of Public Health launched an “education campaign” against pregnancy centers, alleging they spread misinformation.

Some women who say APR has saved their children’s lives have fought back against efforts to prevent access. Mackenna Greene, who said her daughter was saved by APR treatments after she took mifepristone, was involved in a lawsuit against the Colorado ban.

Poehailos told CNA she’s “not certain why it has become such an issue” since the hormone has been in use for more than five decades.

She pointed to the 2018 Delgado study of more than 750 women that found two-thirds of women who took progesterone after taking mifepristone gave birth to the child. Alternatively, women who take mifepristone but skip the second chemical abortion drug misoprostol only give birth to the child about 20%-40% of the time, according to the study.

“It’s statistically significant,” Poehailos said.

Aid to the Church in Need released its 2024 report detailing how it spent $150 million in donations on June 18, 2025. / Credit: yul38885/Shutterstock

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jun 18, 2025 / 16:53 pm (CNA).

The international Catholic nonprofit Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) spent more than $150 million on thousands of projects to support Christians in 137 countries in 2024, according to a financial report released by the organization on June 18.

Some of the projects included aid to Christians in Ukraine and countries throughout the Middle East and Africa. They also supported faith formation for Catholic seminarians, priests, and laypeople, and funded transportation and construction costs in service to the Church.

Based in Germany, ACN, which is supported by donations and does not receive government funding, reported that about 80% of funds was spent directly on mission-related expenses. A little more than 7% was spent on administrative expenses and nearly 13% went to advertising.

ACN received funds from more than 360,000 donors from 23 different countries. 

Nearly 85% of mission-related expenses supported 5,335 aid projects globally, according to the report. The remaining 15% of mission-related funding supported information work such as the publication of Christian literature and advocacy for Christians, proclaiming the Catholic faith, and defense of persecuted Christians. 

“Thanks to your generosity, ACN has been able to bring hope to hundreds of thousands of our brothers and sisters in faith, who face daily challenges such as persecution or wars or sheer poverty,” ACN International Executive President Regina Lynch said in a statement.

“Many of you experience your own hardships, but still, you have answered God’s call to bring hope to others,” Lynch said. “At the heart of every project is the desire to help the Church to be an instrument of God’s message of love for all people.”

In total, ACN received $150.4 million in donations throughout the year and spent an additional $2.4 million in reserves from the previous year. The funding was nearly identical to 2023, when ACN received $154 million in donations and spent an additional $800,000 from reserves.

According to the report, faith formation accounted for more than 28% of the total funding and Mass stipends accounted for nearly 24%. Construction projects represented nearly 24% of funding and transportation accounted for about 10.5% of funds.

Throughout 2024, ACN provided nearly 1.85 million Mass stipends to more than 42,000 priests, which means that nearly every 17 seconds a Mass was celebrated because of ACN funds, an ACN news release noted.

Funds also supported faith formation for nearly 10,000 seminarians throughout the year, which the news release stated represents 1 in every 11 seminarians. This includes more than 5,300 in Africa, more than 1,800 in Latin America, more than 1,750 in Asia, and nearly 1,100 in Europe.

Aid to Ukraine, Africa, the Middle East

As the Russia-Ukraine war continued through 2024, Christians in Ukraine were the largest benefactors of support from ACN.

ACN spent about $9.1 million on Ukraine, which included funding for counseling and support for people suffering from trauma. The money also included funding to train seminarians and to support priests’ basic needs as well as to pay for transportation for them to carry out their pastoral ministry.

Speaking with “EWTN News Nightly,” Father Anton Lässer — the ecclesiastical assistant for ACN — recalled his last trip to Ukraine, saying: “You see these young people, they have lost a leg or an arm or they are blind.”

He spoke about one soldier he encountered there.

“When he was in the hospital he … couldn’t talk so he showed to the sister, ‘please open my eyes’ so that he could realize if he was still able to see,” Lässer said. “And he told us he was never [as] grateful as when he could realize he was still able to see.”

The continent that received the most support from ACN was Africa, where the organization spent more than 30% of its funds. Nigeria and Burkina Faso received the largest amount of aid.

“The Church in Africa is growing rapidly and is blessed with large numbers of priestly and religious vocations,” Lynch said in a statement. “Africa suffers not only from deep poverty but also increasingly from violent Islamic jihadist terror in a growing number of countries.”

Following Africa, the region that received the second most funding was Asia-Oceania, where about 18.7% of the money was spent. The largest benefactors were Christians in India, which accounted for $6.7 million worth of funding. According to ACN, Christians in India are the largest benefactors of scholarships and Mass stipends from ACN funds.

About 17.5% of the funding was spent in the Middle East, with Christians in Lebanon, Syria, and the Holy Land being the largest benefactors. According to ACN, this funding helped to support Christians facing struggles due to armed conflicts.

Latin America accounted for nearly 17% of the funding and Europe received nearly 16% of the funding. About 1% went to other regions.

Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York. / Credit: Jonah McKeown/CNA

CNA Staff, Jun 18, 2025 / 16:23 pm (CNA).

Leading Catholic voices in New York, including Cardinal Timothy Dolan, are urging the state’s Catholic governor to veto an assisted suicide bill that has no wait period or psychological evaluation requirement.  

“This is the cheapening of human life,” Dolan said in a June 17 episode of “Conversations with Cardinal Dolan.”

Gov. Kathy Hochul, a Catholic, has yet to publicly disclose her position on the bill. The state Senate passed the measure on June 9 in spite of bipartisan opposition in the New York Legislature, where numerous Democrats voted against it along with all Republicans. 

Proponents of the bill say assisted suicide would expand end-of-life choices. New York state Sen. Brad Hoylman-Sigal, a Senate sponsor of the bill, said that New York “has made history” by passing the bill, which he says will “reduce human suffering.”

Dennis Poust, the executive director of the New York State Catholic Conference, called the bill “the worst assisted suicide bill in the country” because of its lack of patient guardrails.

While assisted suicide is legal in a dozen states and the District of Columbia, the New York bill is unique in that it has no waiting period, Poust said.

“You could get a terminal diagnosis from your doctor. You’ll be grief-stricken, you’ll be in despair, and you could at that moment request assisted suicide drugs from that doctor and then from a subsequent doctor next door,” Poust told “EWTN News Nightly” on June 13.

“The next day, you could be ending your life,” he said. “It’s egregious.”

Poust also criticized the lack of a psychological evaluation requirement in the bill. 

“Everyone who gets a terminal diagnosis has a moment of depression,” he said. “We all know the five stages of grief, and depression is one of them. But the doctors don’t have to even go there. They can just prescribe the pills if you’re of sound mind.” 

Dolan had earlier expressed hope in a June 10 episode of his show, recalling when he spoke with Hochul about the subject at the June 8 National Puerto Rican Day Parade.

The cardinal said he has praised Hochul for her work in support of mental health care. Hochul has promoted mental health support and suicide prevention during her tenure, including a billion-dollar effort to improve mental care.

“Suicide is an effect when somebody’s struggling emotionally as well as physically,” Dolan recalled telling the governor. “That’s when people are so desperate and we have to help their mental health so that they don’t go for suicide — that’s why we don’t want the physician-assisted suicide.” 

“She didn’t commit herself, but something tells me her gut’s not into this,” Dolan continued. “I’m hoping she’ll take the courageous, right thing to do.”

Dolan urged local Catholics to write to the governor and share their opposition to the bill. 

“This bill is just bad public policy,” Poust said. “It’s bad for people with disabilities, vulnerable people, people of color who tend to live in medically underserved areas and already get cheated in the health care system.”

“There are a lot of good reasons for the governor to veto this that have really nothing to do with her Catholic faith,” Poust continued.

Assisted suicide legislation has passed in multiple countries across the globe, including Canada. But these laws have seen backlash in many cases as assisted suicide has encroached on health care.

Poust urged anyone who is considering assisted suicide to seek out palliative care.

“We don’t want anyone to suffer,” Poust said. “We want people to avail themselves of hospice care. There are ways to control pain. There are ways to pass from this life to the next in peace and love and with caring people around you.”

“I would strongly urge people to not despair and to let God take you when he’s good and ready,” Poust concluded.

Pope Leo XIV waves as the popemobile passes by a crowd of American pilgrims gathered in St. Peter’s Square for the pope’s general audience on June 18, 2025, at the Vatican. / Credit: Vatican Media

Vatican City, Jun 18, 2025 / 15:53 pm (CNA).

“Take part in the steps of Leo XIV with your donation to Peter’s Pence.”

With these words, the Vatican is encouraging Catholics to participate in the collection to support the Holy Father in his mission at the service of the universal Church.

At the end of June, most parishes hold the Peter’s Pence collection, a financial contribution that the faithful offer to the pontiff as an expression of support for the needs of the Catholic Church around the world and the charitable works it carries out.

The collection is taking place on the solemnity of Sts. Peter and Paul, which is celebrated Sunday, June 29.

According to a statement from the Vatican, Peter’s Pence also represents a gesture “of communion and participation in the pope’s mission to proclaim the Gospel, promote peace, and spread Christian charity.”

In support of this initiative, the Secretariat for the Economy and the Dicastery for Communion released a video presenting the “first steps” of Pope Leo XIV as successor to St. Peter.

In the moving, short video, images from the beginning of the Holy Father’s pontificate are shown, along with several significant quotes of his, taken in particular from his first greeting to the world from the balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica.

In 2023, the latest year for which data is available, 48.4 million euros (about $55.6 million) was raised compared with 43.5 million euros (about $50 million) the previous year, according to a statement from the Vatican Secretariat for the Economy.

These donations were supplemented by 3.6 million euros (about $4.1 million) in income from assets. However, expenses totaled 109.4 million euros (about $125.7 million).

Given this situation, on Feb. 26 Pope Francis created the “Commissio de donationibus pro Sancta Sede” (Commission for Donations to the Holy See), a new body to raise funds “for the mission and charitable works of the Apostolic See.” The commission will operate “ad experimentum” (on a trial basis) for the next three years, until 2028.

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

null / Credit: Wolfgang Schaller|Shutterstock.

CNA Staff, Jun 18, 2025 / 15:23 pm (CNA).

In a pivotal 6-3 decision, the U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday ruled to uphold Tennessee’s ban on medical procedures on transgender-identifying youth.

The June 18 ruling in United States v. Skrmetti marks a significant victory for Tennessee and 25 other states with similar restrictions on transgender medical interventions, such as puberty blockers, hormone therapy, and surgeries for minors. 

Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti on X hailed the ruling as a “landmark VICTORY for Tennessee,” emphasizing its role in “defending America’s children.” 

Tennessee’s defense was supported by 24 Republican state attorneys general; Republican governors; the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, who issued a statement in 2023 opposing surgeries that mutilate the human body; conservative legal and policy groups; and “detransitioners” who no longer identify as transgender.

Christian legal nonprofit Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) attorneys filed a friend-of-the-court brief with the Supreme Court in October 2024, urging the court to allow state legislatures to protect children from “experimental medical procedures.”

ADF CEO and President Kristen Waggoner called Wednesday’s decision a “monumental victory for children, science, and common sense.” 

She continued: “No one has the right to harm a child. The Biden administration and ACLU asked the court to create a ‘constitutional right’ to give children harmful, experimental drugs and surgeries that turn them into patients for life. This would have forced states to base their laws on ideology, not evidence — to the immense harm of countless children … States are free to protect children from the greatest medical scandal in generations — and that’s exactly what states like Tennessee have done.”

The Biden administration had argued that gender-altering medical interventions are necessary for transgender youth. 

Directly opposing the Biden administration’s position, President Donald Trump signed an executive order in January ending federal support for gender transition-related care for minors and, in a March joint address to Congress, called for federal legislation “permanently banning and criminalizing sex changes on children.” 

Background and legal arguments

The case stemmed from L.W. v. Skrmetti, where parents argued that the Tennessee law, Senate Bill 1 (SB1), violated the 14th Amendment’s due process clause by infringing on their right to make medical decisions for their children. They also claimed the law violated the equal protection clause by discriminating based on sex. 

The 6th Circuit Court of Appeals had previously upheld SB1, finding it constitutional under both due process and equal protection analyses, contrasting with the 8th Circuit’s 2024 ruling striking down a similar Arkansas law on equal protection grounds.

At the Supreme Court, U.S. Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar and ACLU attorney Chase Strangio argued for the plaintiffs, asserting that SB1 constituted sex-based discrimination requiring intermediate scrutiny — a standard demanding that the state show the law is substantially related to an important government objective. 

They claimed Tennessee failed to meet this burden, as the law targeted treatments specific to transgender minors, effectively discriminating based on sex.

Tennessee Solicitor General J. Matthew Rice countered that SB1 did not discriminate based on sex but instead regulated medical interventions based on age and purpose. He argued for rational basis review, a lower standard requiring only that the law be rationally related to a legitimate government objective, such as protecting minors from unproven medical interventions. 

Rice argued in favor of the state’s authority to regulate medical interventions, particularly for children, given ongoing debates about the long-term effects of gender-based medical treatments.

The Supreme Court’s majority opinion on Wednesday held that SB1 does not constitute sex discrimination warranting heightened scrutiny. The court ruled that the law distinguishes treatments based on their medical purpose, not sex, and thus passes rational basis review.

Chief Justice John Roberts, writing for the majority, echoed his earlier remarks during oral arguments in December 2024: “The Constitution leaves that question to the people’s representatives, rather than to nine people, none of whom is a doctor.” 

Justice Sonia Sotomayor, joined fully by Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson and partially by Justice Elena Kagan, filed a dissenting opinion contending that the law targets transgender minors by denying them access to medical treatments available to others for different purposes and warrants heightened scrutiny because the law “singles out transgender youth for unequal treatment, punishing them for their gender identity in violation of equal protection principles.”

Justice Kagan, in a separate dissenting opinion, emphasized the law’s infringement on parental rights under the due process clause and its lack of rational basis given medical evidence supporting gender-affirming care. She also argued that Tennessee’s categorical ban disregards established medical standards and parental decision-making authority without adequate justification. 

“By overriding medical consensus and parental choices, this law undermines fundamental liberties and sets a dangerous precedent for state overreach,” Kagan stated.

Pope Leo XIV addresses pilgrims at his general audience in St. Peter’s Square on June 18, 2025. / Credit: Vatican Media

Vatican City, Jun 18, 2025 / 14:25 pm (CNA).

Pope Leo XIV on June 18 renewed his strong call for peace, urging people to not “get used to war.”

Addressing pilgrims at the end of Wednesday’s general audience, the pontiff lamented that “the Church is brokenhearted at the cry of pain rising from places devastated by war.”

In particular, he focused on the conflicts in Ukraine, Iran, Israel, and Gaza. “We must not get used to war!” he exclaimed from St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican.

In this context, he emphasized that “the temptation to have recourse to powerful and sophisticated weapons needs to be rejected.”

He then cited the Second Vatican Council noting that in modern warfare, “every kind of weapon produced by modern science is used in war, the savagery of war threatens to lead the combatants to barbarities far surpassing those of former ages.”

“For this reason, in the name of human dignity and international law, I reiterate to those in positions of responsibility the frequent warning of Pope Francis: ‘War is always a defeat!’” the pontiff said, quoting his predecessor.

Finally, he also recalled the words of Pope Pius XII, who reiterated that “nothing is lost in peace. Everything may be lost in war.”

Pope Leo XIV’s remarks come a day after Russia launched a massive missile and drone attack on Kyiv, the Ukrainian capital.

Authorities have confirmed 23 fatalities, and the Ukrainian Air Force claims to have neutralized 30 of the 58 drones launched in another attack carried out against its territory early Wednesday morning.

Meanwhile, the ceasefire has not held in Gaza, and more than 50,000 people have died in the territory since the war between Israel and the terrorist group Hamas began.

The conflict has spilled onto different fronts, most recently with Israel and Iran trading attacks.

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

Father Theodore Gabrielli, SJ. / Credit: San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s Office

CNA Staff, Jun 18, 2025 / 12:27 pm (CNA).

A priest in California has been arrested and charged with acts of child sex abuse that reportedly occurred through the 1990s. 

Police arrested Father Theodore Gabrielli last week on charges of aggravated sexual assault of a minor, the San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s Office said in a post on X on Tuesday. 

Authorities identified three alleged male victims of the priest, the sheriff’s office said; all three were members of the same family. 

At the time of the alleged abuse, “the family was living in Mexico” where they allegedly befriended Gabrielli. 

“The priest became close with the family, and he was allowed to take the three boys with him to many places in California including his parents’ residence in Los Osos,” the sheriff’s office said. “It was there, the victims stated, the priest would sexually assault them.” 

The alleged assaults “continued over the course of about eight years,” reportedly between 1991 and 1999. The victims “decided to come forward last year and report the abuse,” the statement added. 

Gabrielli was arrested in Los Osos on June 12.

The 2023 Archdiocese of Los Angeles directory listed Gabrielli as residing at the Dolores Mission. As recently as June 1 he was listed as a member of the Loyola High School Los Angeles board of directors, though his listing had been removed as of June 18. 

His name has also apparently been removed from the staff directory of Our Lady of Guadalupe Parish in San Diego. 

The Archdiocese of Los Angeles did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Gabrielli’s arrest.