Ss. Cyril and Methodius Ukrainian Catholic Church

null / Credit: Minerva Studio/Shutterstock

CNA Staff, Jul 2, 2025 / 11:17 am (CNA).

The Diocese of Fresno in California filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on July 1, seeking to address more than 150 abuse claims filed there in what Bishop Joseph Brennan said was part of a “journey of conversion through contrition.”

Brennan announced the filing via a video message on Tuesday. The bishop’s message comes more than a year after he announced, in May 2024, that the diocese would seek the bankruptcy filing.

The prelate said the filing was “the only path that will allow us to handle claims of sexual abuse with compassion that is fair and equitable while simultaneously ensuring the continuation of ministry within our diocese.”

As with other dioceses in California and the U.S., the Fresno Diocese is facing a large number of allegations of clergy abuse. Brennan said last year that plaintiffs had lodged 154 sex abuse complaints against the Church there.

Those filings were made under a California law that temporarily relaxed the statute of limitations on sex abuse claims, allowing alleged victims a three-year window from 2019 to 2022 to file the complaints.

Brennan said the Fresno bankruptcy process will include allocating diocesan assets to “satisfy the claims against the diocese.” He added that a fund will also be established to pay abuse claims.

“Our Church must address the suffering that victims of clergy sexual abuse have endured,” he said.

“We know the sin. It will always be before us,” he continued. “Now that we have entered a journey of conversion through contrition and acknowledgement of the victims’ suffering, we must enter a path of reconciliation, which includes resolving the victims’ claims.”

The bishop urged the faithful to pray for abuse victims during the bankruptcy process.

In the bankruptcy petition, filed in U.S. bankruptcy court for the eastern district of California, Brennan authorized diocesan Chief Financial Officer Cynthia Martin and Vicar General Father Salvador Gonzalez to represent the diocese in the proceedings.

The bishop listed the diocese’s assets as between $50 million and $100 million, with between 1,000 and 5,000 creditors.

Palace of the Senate of the Russian Empire in Moscow. / Credit: Angel Miklashevsky, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jul 2, 2025 / 09:29 am (CNA).

Russia continues to perpetuate “particularly severe” religious liberty violations against minority groups within its own country and the Russian-occupied territories of Ukraine, according to a new report from the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF).

The June 30 report, which detailed religious liberty violations throughout 2024 and the beginning of 2025, found continued “intense persecution” of Ukrainian Orthodox, Catholic, and Protestant Christians.

Within Russia’s borders, the report also found numerous religious liberty violations against human rights activists, independent media, anti-war protesters, and others who belong to minority religious groups.

“Russian authorities abuse vague and problematic laws to target religious communities that do not conform to state authority,” USCIRF Chair Vicky Hartzler told CNA in a statement.

“They target Catholics, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Falun Gong Practitioners, Protestants, Ukrainian Christians, Crimean [Tatar] Muslims, and many others that Moscow thinks undermine its dictatorial control,” the former six-term Missouri congresswoman added. “... There is no religious freedom in Russia or [the] territories it occupies.”

About 72% of Russians are Orthodox, 7% are Muslim, 5% are atheist, and 13% do not have a religious affiliation. About 3% of Russians belong to a variety of other religious groups.

Persecution against Ukrainian Christians

The ongoing Russia-Ukraine war has led to the most egregious religious liberty violations by the Russian state.

According to the report, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) have reported the killing of at least 47 religious leaders since the February 2022 invasion. It adds that 640 houses of worship and religious sites have either been damaged or destroyed in that time frame.

The report notes that “Russian de facto authorities have banned” several churches, such as the Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU), Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and several Protestant groups, including Baptists, Pentecostals, and Seventh-day Adventists.

According to the report, authorities have sought to pressure Orthodox Christian communities and leaders to submit to the Russian Orthodox Church under the Moscow Patriarchate.

In some examples over the past year and a half, the report notes that “Russian forces allegedly abducted and tortured to death [Orthodox Church of Ukraine] priest Stepan Podolchak.” It also notes that Russian authorities are accused of demolishing the last Orthodox Church of Ukraine church in Crimea in July 2024.

The report also referenced a United Nations human rights report that detailed the “torture and ill treatment of Ukrainian Greek Catholic priests Ivan Levitsky and Bohdan Geleta” while they were detained from November 2022 through June 2024.

“One of the priests had accused Russian forces of subjecting him to regular beatings, prolonged stress positions, and long-distance crawls on asphalt,” the report notes.

Persecution within Russia

The report notes that Russia has employed laws against “so-called illegal missionary activities” to persecute religious minorities on the basis of faith. It states that Russian courts heard 431 cases regarding these laws in 2024, which resulted in fines totaling nearly $60,000. 

In one case, Russia deported an 85-year-old Polish Catholic priest “who had reportedly served in Russia for almost 30 years” after he lost his documentation that permitted him to preach. The courts have also shut down churches with these laws.

The report also details Russia’s persecution of “anti-war protesters and religious leaders for expressing opposition to the war in religious terms.”

Some examples include Pentecostal Pastor Nikolay Romanyuk, who was “reportedly physically assaulted and arrested” by Russian police for giving a sermon against the war. Another example listed was Apostolic Orthodox Church Archbishop Grigory Mikhnov-Vaitenko receiving a fine of $369 for posting “an anti-war video in which he discussed Russia’s invasion of Ukraine using a biblical story.”

In relation to the ongoing war, the report notes that Christians are frequently denied the ability to perform “alternative civilian service” when they have religious objections to military service.

The report lists numerous religious freedom violations against Russian Muslims. According to the report, Muslims who belong to the Hizb ut-Tahrir (or are accused of belonging to it) have been charged with terrorism “despite no evidence or even allegations that defendants called for or committed violence.” 

The report notes that at least 352 people were prosecuted for alleged affiliation with Hizb ut-Tahrir, which includes Crimean Tatar Muslims. It states that out of 280 convicted, 119 were sentenced to 15 years or more and 131 were sentenced to between 10 and 14 years in prison.

According to the report, Russia has also prosecuted leaders and members of the Church of Scientology, which is labeled “extremist.” They have also targeted leaders and members of the Jehovah’s Witnesses, adherents of Falun Gong, and members of the Allya Ayat spiritual movement for similar reasons.

A 20-foot, 800-pound cross that has traveled to almost 50 European capitals, known as the “Cross of Gratitude,” has recently been welcomed by a Ukrainian Greek Catholic church in Shenandoah, Pennsylvania, the first parish of the Greek Catholic rite in America. / Courtesy: St. Michael the Archangel Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jul 1, 2025 / 16:17 pm (CNA).

A 20-foot, 800-pound cross that has traveled to almost 50 European capitals, known as the “Cross of Gratitude,” has recently been welcomed by a Ukrainian Greek Catholic church in Shenandoah, Pennsylvania, the first parish of the Greek Catholic rite in America.

“It is a great honor and a blessing for the Parish of St. Michael the Archangel to host the Cross of Gratitude, a sacred symbol of Christ’s boundless love and sacrifice,” St. Michael’s parish priest Father Bohdan Vasyliv told CNA.

“We warmly invite all to visit, pray, and reflect before this holy cross, giving thanks for the gift of salvation through Jesus Christ and uniting in wholehearted devotion.”

Two decades ago the Cross of Gratitude was built for an evangelization mission to unite “the nations of the world.” The goal is for the cross to visit every capital city of the world by 2033 in preparation of the 2,000th anniversary of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. 

The pilgrimage of the cross “began with a powerful call to action, inspired by the words heard by Vitaliy Sobolivskyy on the day of the resurrection of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ in 2003,” Vasyliv said. 

Sobolivskyy, a Ukrainian architect who designed the cross, reported he was called by the words: “Take my cross and carry it to all the capitals of the world as a sign of gratitude to Almighty God for our salvation, which we receive from Jesus Christ.” 

The 20-foot cross has already journeyed to 46 European capitals. The pilgrimage schedule plans for visits to North and South America, Asia, Africa, Indonesia, and Australia before it completes in 2033. 

The Cross of Gratitude has been celebrated at each place of rest during holy Mass, Eucharistic adoration, prayer vigils, the Way of the Cross, and Eucharistic processions. The cross visited the U.S. Capitol in 2021 when it was displayed at Immaculate Conception Catholic Church in downtown Washington, D.C.

“This sacred journey seeks to remind everyone that Jesus Christ offers the gift of eternal life,” Vasyliv said.

Pope John Paul II blessed the Cross of Gratitude in 2004 along with the initiators of the mission in Vatican City. The cross, sometimes also referred to as the Cross of Thanksgiving, was then blessed by Pope Benedict XVI during his pilgrimage in Krakow, Poland. In 2016, Pope Francis blessed the cross and those carrying out the evangelization campaign. 

Since 2003, the cross has visited Catholic, Orthodox, and Lutheran churches, and has even been present at Buddhist gatherings.

The Cross of Gratitude is currently on display at St. Michael’s and will remain there through July 20. St. Michael’s will hold Akathist, a Greek Orthodox hymn and prayer service, on Mondays at 4 p.m. for those who wish to see the cross and reflect and pray while it is present. Divine Liturgies will also be celebrated on Tuesdays and Thursdays throughout the month.

The U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. / Credit: Andrea Izzotti/Shutterstock

CNA Staff, Jul 1, 2025 / 14:17 pm (CNA).

Senate Republicans on Tuesday passed President Donald Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill” budget measure, including a provision to defund Planned Parenthood for a year, which pro-life advocates are lauding as a “major step” toward permanently defunding the abortion giant.

The bill was originally set to defund Planned Parenthood for a 10-year period. Last week, Senate Parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough disqualified more than a dozen provisions in the bill, including the portion defunding abortion providers, forcing Republicans to rework the language of the bill.

The Senate on Tuesday passed the reworked bill after a tiebreaking vote cast by Vice President JD Vance. Three Republican lawmakers — Sens. Thom Tillis of North Carolina, Susan Collins of Maine, and Rand Paul of Kentucky — opposed the bill on various grounds.

The reconciliation bill, which includes several spending cuts and tax breaks, still needs to go back to the House for a final round of voting.

The Hyde Amendment prohibits direct federal funding for abortions, though advocates have argued that the federal government has long subsidized abortion by proxy by providing hundreds of millions of dollars in annual funding for Planned Parenthood. The funding is nominally for non-abortion services.

While the defunding period is only a 10th of what pro-life lawmakers initially planned, it would still be significant progress, pro-life advocates argued on Tuesday. 

Kristan Hawkins, the president of Students for Life, called the bill a “small but important victory,” noting that it “cuts an estimated $500 million from Planned Parenthood and abortion vendors,” though she acknowledged it was “for one year only.”

“This proves what we’ve said all along: Congress can cut Planned Parenthood’s funding — and they just did,” Hawkins said in a Tuesday statement on X. “The moral obligation is clear: If we can do it for one year, we must do it for good.”

Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America President Marjorie Dannenfelser called the passage “a crucial victory in the fight against abortion, America’s leading cause of death, and an industry that endangers women and girls.” 

“The greatest pro-life victory since Dobbs is within reach!” she added.  

Live Action President Lila Rose on Tuesday called the measure “a start but not enough.” 

“The House should restore the 10-year defund they already passed,” she said. 

Auxiliary Bishop Mark Rivituso of St. Louis blesses donations in a van used during the National Eucharistic Pilgrimage in July 2024. On July 1, 2025, Pope Leo XIV appointed Rivituso archbishop of Mobile, Alabama. / Credit: Jonah McKeown/CNA

Vatican City, Jul 1, 2025 / 13:47 pm (CNA).

Pope Leo XIV has appointed Bishop Mark Rivituso, auxiliary of St. Louis, as metropolitan archbishop of Mobile, Alabama.

Rivituso succeeds Archbishop Thomas Rodi, who led the Archdiocese of Mobile beginning in 2008. Rodi submitted his resignation letter to Pope Francis in March 2024 after turning 75.

The archbishop-elect on July 1 said he is grateful to Pope Leo for his appointment and feels blessed to follow Rodi as a “good shepherd” for the archdiocese.

“I rely upon the good shepherd, Jesus, to help me to truly be the bishop all of you need me to be,” Rivituso said at a Tuesday press conference. “I will labor with the shepherding love of Jesus for all of you because I want to love you as Christ loves.” 

“I have a big smile on my face because every time I have an opportunity to truly serve others, that’s truly a blessing,” he added. 

Rivituso celebrated Mass on July 1 at the Cathedral-Basilica of the Immaculate Conception in Mobile in thanksgiving for his appointment.

The archbishop-elect received his episcopal consecration and was made an auxiliary for the Archdiocese of St. Louis and titular of Turuzi in 2017. 

Ordained a priest for the Archdiocese of St. Louis in 1988 after completing his seminary training at Cardinal Glennon College and Kenrick Seminary, Rivituso served in several parishes across the city. 

He was parish vicar of St. Ambrose in St. Louis from 1988 to 1990, of Immaculate Conception in Dardenne Prairie from 1990 to 1993, and of St. Jerome in Bissell Hills from 1996 to 2004. Between 2008 and 2013, he was parish priest of Curé of Ars in Shrewsbury.

Across the St. Louis Archdiocese, Rivituso served as a teacher at St. Dominic High School in O’Fallon from 1988 to 1993, an administrator of St. Margaret of Scotland from 1993 to 1994, a member of the metropolitan tribunal from 1993 to 1994 and 1996 to 2004, the judicial vicar of the court of second instance from 2005 to 2011, and the vicar general of the court from 2011 to 2018.

Confessional. / Credit: AS photo studio/Shutterstock

CNA Staff, Jul 1, 2025 / 13:17 pm (CNA).

The Confraternity of Catholic Clergy, representing over 500 Roman Catholic priests and deacons from the U.S., Australia, and the United Kingdom, has issued a statement defending the inviolability of the seal of confession.

The statement was released on June 27, the solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

The declaration comes in response to civil laws, the most recent one in Washington state, that seek to compel priests to disclose information regarding child abuse learned during the sacrament of reconciliation or face penalties.

According to Washington’s new law, noncompliance could result in up to 364 days in jail and a $5,000 fine.

The confraternity’s statement emphasized that the Catholic Church teaches the seal of confession is inviolable with “absolutely no exceptions.” Expounded in the Catechism of the Catholic Church (No. 1467) and the Code of Canon Law (Nos. 983, 1388), this teaching binds priests to maintain absolute confidentiality regarding both the content of confessions and the identity of penitents. Violation of confidentiality incurs automatic excommunication, reversible only by the pope. 

The confraternity argued that laws like Washington state’s infringe on religious liberty while failing to advance justice, citing the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment, the U.K.’s Human Rights Act of 1998, and Australia’s constitution. 

In the statement, the group highlighted the Church’s commitment to child protection through criminal investigation and adjudication, which “can be lawfully and morally done without violating religious liberty.”

Notably, the statement’s authors also pointed out the absurdity of demanding that priests identify anonymous penitents. It also emphasized the injustice of laws like Washington state’s, which exempts other professionals, such as doctors and therapists, from the mandatory disclosure requirement. 

After the passage of Washington’s Senate Bill 5375, signed into law by Gov. Bob Ferguson on May 3 and effective July 27, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) responded swiftly. 

Harmeet Dhillon, assistant attorney general for the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division, sent a letter to Ferguson, a Catholic, just days after Ferguson signed the bill, announcing an investigation into the law and describing it as a “legislative attack on the Catholic Church and its sacrament of confession, a religious practice ordained by the Catholic Church dating back to the Church’s origins.”

The DOJ then filed a lawsuit against Washington on June 23, asserting that the law violates the First Amendment’s protection of the free exercise of religion. “The seal of confidentiality is ... the lifeblood of confession,” the DOJ stated in its brief. “Without it, the free exercise of the Catholic religion ... cannot take place.” 

Washington’s Catholic bishops, including Seattle Archbishop Paul Etienne and Spokane Bishop Thomas Daly, filed a federal lawsuit on May 29 challenging the law on First Amendment and equal protection grounds.

The lawsuit highlighted the Church’s robust child protection policies, which the bishops said exceeds state requirements. “The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Seattle and the dioceses of Yakima and Spokane have each adopted and implemented ... policies that go further in the protection of children than the current requirements of Washington law,” the lawsuit stated.

Daly vowed to the Catholic faithful that clergy would face imprisonment rather than break the seal of confession. “I want to assure you that your shepherds, bishops, and priests are committed to keeping the seal of confession — even to the point of going to jail,” he said. Etienne echoed this, referencing Acts 5:29: “We must obey God rather than men.”

Orthodox churches have joined the legal battle, filing their own lawsuit on June 16, asserting that their priests, like Catholic clergy, have a “strict religious duty” to maintain the confidentiality of the confessional, with violations constituting a “canonical crime and a grave sin.”

The Confraternity of Catholic Clergy was founded in 1975 to foster ongoing formation for clergy per Vatican II’s directives.

The icon of Our Lady of Czestochowa is displayed at the National Shrine of Our Lady of Czestochowa in Doylestown, Pennsylvania, Sunday, June 29, 2025. / Credit: Courtesy of the National Shrine of Our Lady of Czestochowa

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jul 1, 2025 / 12:07 pm (CNA).

More than 1,000 Catholics with Polish roots gathered for a celebratory jubilee Mass and jubilee concert to honor the 70th anniversary of the National Shrine of Our Lady of Czestochowa in the southeastern Pennsylvania borough of Doylestown on Sunday, June 29.

The Marian shrine, located about 25 miles north of Philadelphia, was established in 1955 by a Polish priest from the Order of St. Paul the First Hermit. It was created to honor the Black Madonna — a centuries-old icon of the Blessed Mother that sits in the southern Polish city of Czestochowa and holds a strong devotion from the country’s faithful.

Pauline Fathers from the order continue to operate the shrine. 

“The seeds of the shrine were sowed 70 years ago by a Pauline priest who came carrying the image of Our Lady of Czestochowa with the dream of establishing a shrine,” Archbishop Nelson Pérez of Philadelphia, the main celebrant of the Mass, said in his homily.

“And that community came here carrying Our Lady and sowed those seeds,” he said. “... And so here we are, fast-forward 70 years later, and from that little humble barn chapel … came all of this.”

In 1955, Father Michael Zembrzuski brought a copy of the icon that had been blessed by St. John XXIII to the United States in hopes of creating a chapel, according to the shrine’s website. 

The icon was displayed in a small wooden barn chapel at first, but the Pauline Fathers soon built a much larger complex to support the high number of Polish-American pilgrims visiting the site.

Now the Black Madonna icon, which shows the Blessed Virgin holding the infant Christ with two scars down her right cheek, sits above the altar of the Church. The scars on the original icon in Poland are believed to have been caused by an attack from the Hussites.

During his homily, Pérez spoke about the famous wounds on the icon, noting that “they tried to fix it, you know, in the original image and they could not.”

“They represent the wounds that the Church has received over time, sometimes from the outside; sometimes inflicted upon itself,” he added. “Wounds that leave a mark, and those marks could not be taken away from the image — the face of Our Lady.”

Pérez said the scars are also “an incredible sign of compassion and understanding with you and with me because we too bear wounds.”

“They might not be as visible as those wounds,” he said. “They might be the wounds of our heart and actually you and I know right now in this moment what they are and how powerful at times they can exert energy upon us. The Blessed Mother here stands before us saying: ‘I got them too.’ … And those wounds become part of our own story of salvation.”

A homily in Polish was delivered by Father Arnold Chrapkowski, the superior general of the Pauline order.

A large portion of pilgrims who attended the 70th anniversary celebration were immigrants from Poland and many others were descendents of Polish immigrants.

One pilgrim named Adam, who was raised in Poland and visited the original icon in his home country “many times,” told CNA that it’s important to him to be within driving distance to a shrine honoring Our Lady of Czestochowa.

Adam, who now lives in New York City, said the icon serves as a reminder to “look for support from God and from Our Lady.”

Another pilgrim named Gerome, who grew up in Hamtramck, Michigan (a predominantly Polish city near Detroit), told CNA that copies of the Black Madonna icon were prominently displayed at many of the neighborhood churches.

Gerome, who now lives in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, said he often visits the shrine, especially during Christmas, to hear the “kolęda,” which are Polish Christmas carols. He said he has also visited the original shrine in Poland, which he described as “beautiful” and an important devotion for Polish Catholics.

“People would walk from Warsaw to Our Lady of Czestochowa [for pilgrimages],” he said.

Bishop Krzysztof Józef Nykiel, the regent of the Apostolic Penitentiary of the Apostolic See, also attended the anniversary to concelebrate and read a letter from Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin.

In the letter, Parolin conveyed a message from Pope Leo XIV bestowing his apostolic blessing on participants in the celebration and thanked the Pauline Fathers for their mission in the United States.

“He sends prayerful best wishes to all participating in the Mass commemorating this occasion,” the letter read.

The 70th anniversary Mass was bilingual, in both English and Polish, to accommodate those who primarily speak Polish and the English-speaking pilgrims. During the concert and the Mass, the choir played several Polish Catholic hymns.

One hymn, “Czarna Madonna,” which honors the Blessed Mother and the icon, was sung at the end of Mass. Much of the congregation joined with the choir in singing the Polish-language hymn as Perez and the nine other concelebrating bishops turned to the icon before the closing procession.

“In her arms, you will find peace and shelter from evil,” the song proclaims, according to an English translation. “For she has a tender heart for all her children. And she will take care of you, when you give your heart to her.”

Multiple advocacy groups filed a lawsuit against Colorado on June 30, 2025, claiming its assisted suicide law unconstitutionally discriminates against disabled people. / Credit: Patrick Thomas/Shutterstock

CNA Staff, Jul 1, 2025 / 11:36 am (CNA).

A coalition of advocacy groups is suing the state of Colorado over its assisted suicide law, claiming the statute is unconstitutional for allegedly discriminating against those who suffer from disabilities. 

Filed June 30 in U.S. district court by several organizations including Not Dead Yet and the Institute for Patients’ Rights, the lawsuit describes Colorado’s assisted suicide regime as “a deadly and discriminatory system that steers people with life-threatening disabilities away from necessary lifesaving and preserving mental health care.”

In the lawsuit — spearheaded by the umbrella group End Assisted Suicide — the plaintiffs argue that the law “does not require any evaluation, screening, or treatment by a mental health professional for serious mental illness, depression, or treatable suicidality before the lethal prescription is written.”

The state legalized assisted suicide in 2016, one of several states that year to do so. The measure permits doctors to prescribe lethal doses of drugs to terminally ill patients who wish to kill themselves.

In 2024 the state expanded the law to allow a larger number of medical officials to prescribe those drugs.

Prescribers are not required to possess expertise about the patient’s specific illness and are not required to be trained in recognizing mental health symptoms associated with the illness, the lawsuit argues.

Providers are similarly not required to help patients access alternative treatments such as palliative care and mental health treatment, according to the suit.

Colorado has created “a two-tiered medical system in which people who are suicidal receive radically different treatment responses by their providers and protections from the state” depending on a medical provider’s opinion, the lawsuit alleges, arguing that the state law violates both federal disability laws and “constitutional guarantees of due process and equal protection.”

The suit asks the court to block the law under the federal Americans with Disabilities Act and the Rehabilitation Act, as well as the Affordable Care Act and the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. 

The Colorado law has received pushback from Catholic advocates. The state Catholic conference last year opposed the expansion of the suicide law, calling the overall statute itself “unjust,” stipulating that it “targets the most vulnerable in our society” and corrupts the practice of medicine. 

Elsewhere, Church leadership has similarly condemned euthanasia and assisted suicide. Pope Francis in 2022 said dying people need palliative care rather than suicide; the next year he condemned euthanasia as “playing with life” and “bad compassion.” 

Prior to his election as pontiff, meanwhile, Pope Leo XIV spoke out against assisted suicide, warning in 2016 that the practice “threatens the most vulnerable in society.”

Eleven other states and the District of Columbia allow assisted suicide. Most recently the New York State Legislature in June passed a law legalizing it there, though Gov. Kathy Hochul had not yet signed it as of July 1.

Various award-winning members of the EWTN News team are shown here in Phoenix, including National Catholic Register Editor-in-Chief Shannon Mullen, EWTN News Special Initiatives Director Jeanette DeMelo, EWTN News Director of Digital Strategy and Social Media Úrsula Murúa, Register Managing Editor Tom Wehner, CNA reporter Kate Quiñones, and CNA Editor-in-Chief Ken Oliver-Méndez. / Credit: CNA

Phoenix, Ariz., Jul 1, 2025 / 10:35 am (CNA).

EWTN News properties received 27 awards at the recent 2025 Catholic Media Association (CMA) awards in Phoenix for journalistic excellence across Catholic News Agency, the National Catholic Register, and ChurchPop. 

For the second year in a row, EWTN Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board Michael Warsaw led the way, winning in the “Best Regular Column — General Commentary” category for his regular column “A Note From the Publisher.” A CMA judge hailed Warsaw’s columns for their “exceptional, frank, and forthright candor.” 

Meanwhile, the Register won coveted top honors as best Catholic newspaper of the year. “There’s something for every reader in this fine publication,” one CMA judge said of the paper, which has received this honor multiple times in recent years.

For its incisive coverage of in vitro fertilization, CNA also took first place in the category of “Best Analysis/Background/Round-Up News Writing — National Newspaper or Wire Service.” A CMA judge commented that the articles on the topic by reporters Tyler Arnold and Peter Pinedo gave “a detailed explanation of the science behind in vitro fertilization and how it can be viewed through a Catholic lens.” 

CNA’s editor-in-chief, Ken Oliver-Méndez, also took first place in the category “Best News Writing One Shot — National Event” for his coverage of the 2024 Republican National Convention titled “Spiritual tone at RNC heightened in wake of Trump assassination attempt.” A CMA judge heaped praise on this “standout” piece for its “good insights and smart writing.”

Judges also recognized the agency’s top-notch global coverage, with CNA’s Marinella Bandini receiving first place for what one judge described as a “gripping, firsthand account” of a Catholic woman who survived the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacks in the category “Best News Writing One Shot — International Event.”

The Register also took first place in the “Best Coverage — Disaster or Crisis” category for articles on the Middle East by Solène Tadié, Alberto Fernández, and Michele Chabin.

The Register also led in the category of “Best Coverage — Religious Liberty Issues” with its articles by Alberto Fernández, Andrea Picciotti-Bayer, and Jonathan Liedl on “Religious Liberty in the Crosshairs.” The coverage, one CMA judge said, provided “diverse perspectives and present differences evenhandedly.” 

CNA also won top honors for “Best Use of Video on Social Media — Ongoing Series — Radio, Television Stations, and Film Companies” for Francesca Pollio Fenton’s coverage of the new season of “The Chosen.” Pollio Fenton’s reporting of the press junket was described as “highly engaging.”

In the “Best Feature Writing — National Newspaper or Wire Service” category, the Register won first place for Matthew McDonald’s article “Surrounded by Halloween Witchery, Catholics in Salem Wage a Battle for Souls,” which a judge said was “grounded in history and well-known cultural themes.”

In addition, CNA, the Register, and sister EWTN News outlet ChurchPop amassed runner-up awards in 18 additional categories for coverage of ecumenical and interfaith issues and religious freedom as well as other events and topics ranging from 2024 papal travel to the National Eucharistic Revival to the issue of smartphones in the confessional. 

Celebrating the bevy of awards, EWTN News President and COO Montse Alvarado commented that “it’s humbling for all of the EWTN News team to be recognized among our peers, who understand what it takes to deliver news faithful to our shared mission and unmatched in quality, journalism that informs rather than inflames.”

Likewise, Register Editor-in-Chief Shannon Mullen emphasized that “it means a great deal to us to be recognized by our peers in the Catholic media.” 

“These honors are a testament to the hard work our journalists do every day to deliver the excellent journalism that our Church deserves and our readers have come to expect from the Register,” Mullen added.

In a similar vein, CNA editor-in-chief Oliver-Méndez called the awards a “testament to both the quality and value of the agency’s coverage of important events and issues of interest to Catholics in the United States and around the world.” 

“Receiving such recognition serves to stimulate our entire team as we strive to achieve excellence across the entire scope of our news coverage,” he concluded.

Carmen Sánchez Maíllo is academic secretary of the CEU Institute of Family Studies. / Credit: San Pablo CEU

Madrid, Spain, Jul 1, 2025 / 09:00 am (CNA).

Analyzing the consequences of the law that equated same-sex unions with marriage in Spain 20 years ago, Carmen Sánchez Maíllo, academic secretary of the CEU (Center of University Studies, by its Spanish acronym) Institute of Family Studies, considers the statute to be difficult to overturn but “not impossible.”

On July 1, 2005, Spain’s lower house passed the law that then-President José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero announced a year earlier that his government would introduce. Article 44 of the Civil Code was reworded as follows: “Marriage shall have the same requirements and effects when both parties are of the same or different sexes.”

Spain thus became the third country in the world, after the Netherlands and Belgium, to equate marriage with same-sex unions, which also allowed same-sex couples to apply to adopt children in the latter two.

A few days before the final vote, a huge demonstration took place in Madrid featuring the theme “The Family Does matter, for a Father and a Mother.” Numerous civic groups participated in the event, which had the explicit support of the country’s Catholic Church.

As many as 20 Spanish bishops could be seen marching in the streets of Spain’s capital city, including the then-president of the Spanish Bishops’ Conference, Cardinal Antonio María Rouco Varela.

On Sept. 30, 2005, the People’s Party (PP) filed an appeal with the Constitutional Court arguing that the law “denaturalizes the institution of marriage” and violates numerous constitutional articles. The court never ruled on the appeal until seven years later, in 2012, when it rejected it.

Despite its initial opposition, the PP has now wholeheartedly supported the so-called LGBTI pride celebrations for years, as evidenced on its social media.

In the six months remaining in 2005 after the law came into effect, 1,269 same-sex unions were entered into, mostly between men, a trend that continued until 2018, when those between women became more numerous.

In comparison with all marriages, same-sex unions have gone from representing 1% of the total population to 4% in two decades.

Speaking with ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner, Sánchez said that “turning these issues around is difficult [but] not impossible” and that achieving it requires “great determination” on the part of a parliamentary majority.

As precedents in the field of family law, she cited the cases of Slovenia and Hungary, by referendum and legislation respectively, and with regard to the right to life, the U.S. Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade that returned the issue to state legislatures.

‘Gender ideology has swept through Spanish legislation’

As Sánchez sees it, the law equating marriage with same-sex unions “affects the very concept of marriage, its purposes, and its social function in such a way that it is denaturalized,” but that is not its only effect.

With such unions, “a breach was opened on many issues, a spearhead through which an ideology enters in and fully affects politics and legislation,” she added.

“Gender ideology has swept through Spanish legislation,” Sánchez noted, with important “social, cultural, and demographic implications.”

Focusing exclusively on the law equating same-sex unions with marriage, Sánchez emphasized the special impact on minors: “In this type of union, one of the two role models, paternal or maternal, is absent,” which is detrimental to minors “who need both figures” in their lives.

In the case of boys, the paternal figure offers “a model of virility, of masculinity, which today are politically incorrect words,” as are “chivalry” or “nobility,” she pointed out.

In the case of girls, the father figure “is extremely important for their self-esteem, identity, and security. They will compare any relationship they have with their father figure.”

For her part, the mother figure “provides that tenderness, that affection, and is also necessary for sons and daughters.”

For Sánchez, this type of law also carries the danger that “children can be exploited in ideological debates,” which goes against the best interests of the child.

In this regard, she pointed out that what is “healthiest and most balanced” is to have both parents, male and female, and that “the best interest of the child is a marriage” with both role models.

On the other hand, the natural infertility of same-sex relations has other effects. In the case of two men, these types of laws become “a lever” to resort to surrogacy, which “commodifies the female body” and which, Sánchez noted, “has been prohibited in Spain since 2006.”

In the case of lesbian couples, naturally infertile sexual activity leads some to resort to assisted reproduction techniques. In the researcher’s opinion, beyond how these procedures affect the dignity of human life, “this is a huge problem, because these are children born without a known, identified father figure.” 

The importance of nurturing marriage

Faced with this situation, Sánchez proposed highlighting the witness of “strong, stable, united marriages,” including large families, that offer “an image that society needs,” of families living life with joy.

Furthermore, she said she believes it is necessary to “speak well of the fact that a strong, united marriage is possible” and for families to help each other, because “a marriage always needs support,” whether from other spouses, experts, or counselors.

“There is a desire inscribed in the human heart to love and be loved, and it must be nurtured at all stages of life,” explained Sanchez, who went on to emphasize that marriage is “a very well-designed” institution. It is God’s plan for the person. It is a natural vocation.”

“We are called to this communion of persons, to a very deep union between husband and wife, for the family, and children need their parents to love each other and they need those two role models who form the way they see the world,” she explained.

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