Ss. Cyril and Methodius Ukrainian Catholic Church

null / Credit: Wolfgang Schaller/Shutterstock

Washington, D.C., Dec 2, 2025 / 17:04 pm (CNA).

The U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments Tuesday on whether a New Jersey faith-based pregnancy center may immediately assert its First Amendment right to challenge a state subpoena demanding donor information — including names, addresses, and places of employment — in federal court, or whether it must first proceed through the state court system.

The case, First Choice Women’s Resource Centers, Inc. v. Platkin, has drawn support from a diverse array of groups, including the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, members of Congress, the Trump administration, and the ACLU. All argue that First Choice should be able to challenge the subpoena in federal court without first litigating the issue in New Jersey state court.

At the center of the dispute is a 2023 subpoena issued by New Jersey Attorney General Matthew J. Platkin seeking extensive donor information from First Choice. In 2022, Platkin created what he called a “reproductive rights strike force” to “protect access to abortion care,” and his office issued a “consumer alert” describing crisis pregnancy centers like First Choice as organizations that may provide “false or misleading information about the safety and legality of abortion.”

In its Supreme Court brief, First Choice describes itself as a faith-based nonprofit serving women in New Jersey by providing material support and medical services such as ultrasounds and pregnancy tests under a licensed medical director. The organization does not provide or refer for abortions, a point it plainly and repeatedly states on its website.

Platkin’s subpoena commanded First Choice to produce documents and information responsive to 28 separate demands, including the full names, phone numbers, addresses, and current or last known employers of every donor who contributed money by any means other than one specific website. It warned that failure to comply could result in contempt of court and other legal penalties.

The attorney general’s office said it needed donor identities to determine whether contributors were “misled” into believing First Choice provided abortions. Platkin argued he needed donor contact information so he could “contact a representative sample and determine what they did or did not know about their donations.”

First Choice quickly sued in federal court, arguing the subpoena violated its First Amendment rights by chilling its speech and freedom of association. The federal district court dismissed the case as “unripe,” ruling that the pregnancy center must wait until a New Jersey court seeks to enforce the subpoena. The Supreme Court later agreed to hear the case to determine whether First Choice may pursue its challenge in federal court now.

At oral argument, First Choice’s attorney, Erin M. Hawley, told the justices that the court has “long safeguarded the freedom of association by protecting the membership and donor lists of nonprofit organizations.” Yet, she said, “the attorney general of New Jersey issued a sweeping subpoena commanding on pain of contempt that First Choice produce donor names, addresses, and phone numbers so his office could contact and question them. That violates the right of association.”

Hawley urged the court to recognize that the subpoena was issued by “a hostile attorney general who has issued a consumer alert, urged New Jerseyans to beware of pregnancy centers, and assembled a strike force against them.”

She also noted that the attorney general “has never identified a single complaint against First Choice” and that the threat of contempt and business dissolution is “a death knell for nonprofits like First Choice.”

Arguing for New Jersey, Sundeep Iyer, the attorney general’s chief counsel, said First Choice had not demonstrated that the subpoena “objectively chilled” its First Amendment rights. He argued that the subpoena is “non-self-executing,” meaning it imposes no immediate obligation and cannot require compliance unless a court orders enforcement.

Justice Neil Gorsuch appeared skeptical, noting that New Jersey law gives attorney general subpoenas the force of law and allows the attorney general to seek contempt orders against those who fail to comply. “I don’t know how to read that other than it’s pretty self-executing to me, counsel,” he said.

Justice Elena Kagan questioned whether an “ordinary person” receiving such a subpoena would feel reassured by the claim that it required court approval before being enforced. A donor, she said, is unlikely “to take that as very reassuring.”

In an amicus curiae brief, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops urged the court to side with First Choice. “Compelling disclosure of a religious organization’s financial support violates the constitutional guarantee of freedom of religion,” the bishops wrote. Forced donor disclosure, they argued, interferes with a religious organization’s mission and burdens the free-exercise rights of donors who give anonymously in accordance with scriptural teachings.

The Supreme Court is expected to issue a decision in the coming months.

Bishop Chad W. Zielinski of New Ulm, Minnesota. / Credit: Diocese of Fairbanks

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Dec 2, 2025 / 15:38 pm (CNA).

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) allocated more than $7.8 million to strengthen American mission dioceses, which are dioceses that cannot sustain themselves without additional funds.

The USCCB Subcommittee on Catholic Home Missions announced the grants on Dec. 1, which will provide 69 dioceses and eparchies with funds for the 2025-2026 budget year, according to a news release. The subcommittee reviewed the grant requests in the fall.

Per the news release, the funds were generated through collections from parishioners during the Catholic Home Missions appeal, which is taken up annually throughout the country. Many mission dioceses are in regions with small Catholic populations and in rural areas that are affected by economic hardship, the bishops said in the announcement.

“When parishioners contribute to the Catholic Home Missions Appeal, they bring faith, hope, and love where it is most needed, regardless the amount of their gift,” Bishop Chad Zielinski of New Ulm, Minnesota, subcommittee chair, said in a statement.

“Their gifts have a profound, positive impact on Catholics who face poverty or the isolation of being a small, minority faith,” he said.

The recipients include the Diocese of Rapid City’s Standing Rock Reservation Ministry, which serves the Standing Rock Sioux tribe. Three Franciscan sisters and one priest lead the team to provide home visitations and faith formation, which cares for 500 Catholics at four parishes and offers social support and accompaniment to 8,000 other residents, according to the bishops.

Recipients include the Diocese of Brownsville, Texas, for its Office of Deliverance Ministry, which provides prayers of deliverance for those with spiritual struggles. 

Another recipient is the Syro-Malankara Eparchy of St. Mary Queen of Peace, which has 24 priests that serve 11,000 parishioners but has no paid lay staff. The grant supports a youth summer camp, retreats, family conventions, and vocational discernment.

“These stories reveal the wide range of spiritual and financial needs that the Catholic Home Missions Appeal addresses,” Zielinski said. 

“Parishioners in mission dioceses already give sacrificially from their limited means,” he added. “My prayer is that their example of faith will inspire the rest of us [to] dig deeper to help our neighbors carry out the mission that Jesus has entrusted to us,” Zielinski said. 

The cathedral in Zagreb, Croatia. / Credit: Fogcatcher/Shutterstock

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Dec 2, 2025 / 13:33 pm (CNA).

Police in Croatia’s capital city of Zagreb suspect that a nun stabbed herself and then falsely reported that she had been attacked, according to a report published by the Zagreb Police Department.

The department is filing a criminal complaint against the 35-year-old nun, Sister Marija Tatjana Zrno, after a four-day investigation into the allegations. The initial incident made national headlines, with many people first speculating it was a religiously motivated attack.

According to the report, Zrno told police that an unknown perpetrator approached her with a knife and stabbed her, after which she was treated at the Sisters of Charity Hospital in Zagreb for minor injuries.

However, police allege their investigation confirmed that Zrno purchased the weapon herself at a store in the Zagreb area. The police allege that their investigation determined that she inflicted the injury on herself.

The report alleges that Zrno falsely reported the criminal offense with the intent of misleading the police, despite being aware that filing a false report carries a penalty. The police are filing a criminal complaint with the Municipal State Attorney’s office.

The Archdiocese of Zagreb and the Episcopal Conference of Croatia, which represents the country’s Catholic bishops, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Zrno, who belongs to the Sisters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul Croatia and teaches religion at an elementary school in Zagreb, was hospitalized with the injuries on Nov. 28 after she said she was stabbed in the city’s Malešnica neighborhood.

The Sisters of Charity Hospital said in a statement to Net.hr that Zrno entered the surgical ward around 3 p.m. with an injury inflicted by a sharp object in the abdominal wall area. The injuries were not life-threatening, and the hospital provided medical treatment and alerted the police, according to the statement.

According to the police report, she was discharged on Dec. 1.

The Croatian government’s official X account posted that police and health workers took all necessary measures and actions and launched an investigation. The Ministry of Science, Education, and Youth had contacted the school principal to provide a psychological crisis intervention team to assist colleagues and students.

Zagreb Mayor Tomislav Tomašević told local media at the time that his primary focus was on Zrno’s recovery but asked police to fully investigate the incident and publish their findings as soon as possible, noting that many people in the country were upset about the news.

Initial speculation on social media and in some media reports asserted that unnamed sources had claimed an attacker was a migrant who shouted “Allahu Akbar” during the stabbing. 

The police report said the department’s criminal investigation found those claims to be false and said the department fully refutes those claims.

Amid the media speculation and aggressive discourse surrounding the incident initially, a Croatian priest named Father Stjepan Ivan Horvat posted on Instagram that Catholics are called to grow in love for God and man and warned against calls for vengeance that he had seen.

He quoted the words of Jesus Christ in John 15:18-20: “If the world hates you, realize that it hated me first.” 

“If you belonged to the world, the world would love its own; but because you do not belong to the world, and I have chosen you out of the world, the world hates you. Remember the word I spoke to you, ‘No slave is greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours.”

St. Columba Cathedral in Youngstown, Ohio. / Credit: Carol M. Highsmith, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

CNA Staff, Dec 2, 2025 / 13:03 pm (CNA).

The Diocese of Youngstown, Ohio, and one of its Catholic high schools are facing multiple lawsuits over the alleged mishandling of multiple reports of bullying and student-led abuse.

Of the four lawsuits, three were filed in federal district court and the fourth was filed in a county court of common pleas. They allege that Ursuline High School in Youngstown failed to prevent the bullying and harassment of several students.

In the federal lawsuits, attorneys allege that Ursuline ignored multiple instances of harassment and bullying from the school’s football players. Ursuline was aware of the abuse, the suits claim, though administrators allegedly did nothing in order to protect “the glory of [the school’s] football team.”

One suit alleges that a football player engaged in protracted sexual harassment and eventually physical abuse of a young female student, including “asking [her] for sex and nude photos” and eventually allegedly dragging her across the grass to give her “turf burn.”

In another suit, several football players are alleged to have “harassed, bullied, and ridiculed” a student identified in the filing as gay. The alleged victim is alleged to have reported the abuse to school officials, who reportedly “failed to stop or address the misconduct.”

Another suit claims football players participated in “hazing, physical and sexual abuse, kidnapping, production and dissemination of child pornography, and theft,” including an incident in which multiple players allegedly stripped a classmate nude, physically abused him, and recorded the attack to post on social media platform Snapchat.

A fourth lawsuit, filed by the mother of an Ursuline student in Mahoning County Court of Common Pleas, alleges that officials with the school knew ahead of time of a student’s intent to attack her daughter but did not take steps to prevent it, leading to the daughter allegedly being violently assaulted in the school cafeteria.

The three federal suits allege violations of Title IX education rules, while the suit in county court claims violations of Ohio law.

A spokeswoman for the Youngstown Diocese pointed to an earlier statement from Bishop David Bonnar on the suits. The prelate said the diocese was “deeply saddened” by the allegations. He added leaders in the diocese “will do their best and are doing their best to work through this.” 

Ursuline High School, meanwhile, pledged in a statement to “allow the legal process to proceed” regarding the four lawsuits.

“That said, the incidents in question were reviewed in detail at the time, and Ursuline High School is confident that all appropriate actions were taken by faculty and staff members,” the school said.

“In particular, there is no evidence that Ursuline failed or was derelict in any of its child protection duties,” the statement added, arguing that the allegations of dereliction appear to be “baseless and completely without merit.”

Subodh Chandra, whose law firm is representing the plaintiffs in the suits, said in a statement on his firm’s website that the suits indicate “a deep and pervasive culture of protecting Ursuline’s image, particularly its athletic program, above the sacred duty to protect children.”

“Our clients all continue to ask: How do these administrators still have jobs? Why has the bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Youngstown done nothing to hold Ursuline’s administration accountable?” Chandra said.

The suits are seeking hundreds of thousands of dollars in damages from the defendants.

null / Credit: Karina Lopatina/Shutterstock

CNA Staff, Dec 2, 2025 / 12:33 pm (CNA).

The University of Colorado’s medical school will pay out a massive eight-figure settlement after it required multiple staffers, including a Catholic doctor, to obtain the COVID-19 vaccination. 

The Thomas More Society said the university’s Anschutz School of Medicine “agreed to pay more than $10.3 million in damages, tuition, and attorney’s fees” to 18 plaintiffs in the lawsuit. 

The legal group said in a Dec. 1 release that the plaintiffs had been “denied religious accommodations to mandatory COVID-19 vaccinations.” The suit has been active for nearly five years. 

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit had ruled in 2024 that the university had violated the plaintiffs’ “clearly established” First Amendment rights in refusing to issue religious exemptions to the COVID vaccine. Religious objectors have cited numerous concerns with the vaccines, including that they were developed using fetal cell lines. 

Thomas More Society attorney Michael McHale said the plaintiffs in the case “felt forced to succumb to a manifestly irrational mandate” without any exemption for their sincere religious beliefs.

“We are confident our clients’ long-overdue victory indeed confirms, despite the tyrannical efforts of many, that our shared constitutional right to religious liberty endures,” he said.

The lawsuit was originally filed on behalf of a Catholic doctor and a Buddhist medical student, with numerous other plaintiffs subsequently joining the litigation.

Thomas More Society litigation head Peter Breen said the objectors “stood up, at great personal cost, to an injustice that never should have been inflicted on them — or on any American.”

“Because they had the courage to say ‘no’ when their religious freedoms were trampled, people of faith across the country now enjoy stronger protections,” he said. 

Madison Gould, a plaintiff in the case, said in the legal group’s press release that the university’s policy “gutted the years of study and self-sacrifice poured out by so many in pursuit of serving the weakest among us.” 

Gould expressed gratitude to lawyers at the Thomas More Society “for standing by us when no one else would.”

“May our nation never witness anything like this travesty again,” she said. 

Religious objectors in recent years have won several major victories against institutions that have required them to undergo COVID vaccination with a religious exemption. 

In 2022 NorthShore University HealthSystem agreed to pay $10.3 million to more than 500 workers after the health system denied them religious exemptions to the vaccine.

In 2024, meanwhile, a Catholic woman in Michigan won $12.7 million after Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan fired her after refusing to grant her a religious exemption. 

And in July of this year, a federal appeals court revived a Catholic worker’s lawsuit against the Federal Reserve Bank of New York over the bank’s having fired her for refusing to take the COVID vaccine.

Bishop Patrick Neary of the Diocese of Saint Cloud, Minnesota. / Credit: Photo courtesy of the Diocese of Saint Cloud

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Dec 2, 2025 / 12:03 pm (CNA).

Bishop Patrick Neary of Saint Cloud, Minnesota, has been appointed as the chair of Catholic Relief Services’ (CRS) board. 

Neary was appointed by Archbishop Paul Coakley, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ (USCCB) president. Neary succeeds Archbishop Nelson Pérez of Philadelphia. 

Neary assumes responsibilities for the role immediately, and the term runs until November 2028. 

“It is a profound honor to serve as chairman of the Catholic Relief Services board,” Neary said, according to a press release. “My years in Africa and in parish ministry have shown me the face of Christ in the poor and the vulnerable, and I carry those encounters with me into this role.”

Neary praised CRS for embodying the Church’s mission of compassionate accompaniment of those in need and lauded his predecessor, Pérez, for “his commitment to advocating for the dignity of the poor and amplifying the voices of the vulnerable.”

“I hope to lead with a heart of mercy, listening and working alongside our partners to uphold the dignity of every person,” Neary said. “Together, we will continue to bring the light of Christ to communities around the world, especially those most in need.”

Neary has served as bishop of Saint Cloud since he was appointed by Pope Francis in December 2022. He served in Kenya and Uganda for eight years before returning to the U.S., then served as rector of Holy Redeemer Parish in Portland, Oregon. 

“We are delighted for Bishop Neary to join as CRS chairman of the board of directors,” said Sean Callahan, president and CEO of CRS. “We are certain that he will bring strong leadership and help CRS continue our mission of lifesaving work and advocacy for our sisters and brothers around the world.”

Neary was ordained a priest in 1991 at the University of Notre Dame, where he was also rector for many years. 

According to its website, CRS serves 225 million people across 122 countries annually and has 1,735 partners around the world. 

The faceless Nativity scene in Brussels, Belgium, in November 2025. / Credit: Maxim Van den Bossche

Brussels, Belgium, Dec 2, 2025 / 10:08 am (CNA).

A new Nativity scene featuring faceless cloth figures installed on Brussels’ historic Grand Place — and the theft of the infant Jesus — have ignited fierce debate across Europe, with critics calling it an erasure of Christian tradition and supporters defending it as inclusive art.

The traditional wooden figurines have been replaced with forms made from recycled textiles, with faces consisting only of patchwork fabric in beige and brown tones. Artist Victoria-Maria Geyer crafted the Nativity figures out of cloth with no identifying facial features.

The installation, titled “Fabrics of the Nativity,” was selected through a call for proposals after city officials said the previous wooden Nativity had become too deteriorated to use. The dean of Sts. Michael and Gudula Cathedral was involved in the search for a new project and approved it, according to both municipal and church sources.

The installation drew immediate criticism on social media. Belgian national team soccer player Thomas Meunier triggered widespread reaction on X with his comment: “We’ve hit rock bottom... and we keep digging,” a post that was shared thousands of times.

American conservative author Rod Dreher, who has written extensively about European Christianity, contrasted the Brussels installation with Hungary’s approach. Posting a photo of a traditional wooden Nativity scene outside the Hungarian Parliament, Dreher wrote: “A Nativity scene outside the Hungarian Parliament. A Christian country that is not ashamed of the gift of faith.”

Georges Dallemagne from Brussels’ Christian Democrats party called the missing faces “very shocking,” stating: “The Nativity is a message of universality, not a zombie exhibition.” Liberal party chairman Georges-Louis Bouchez called the installation an “insult to our traditions” and demanded its replacement.

Professor Wouter Duyck of Ghent University suggested political correctness and fear of angering Brussels’ large Muslim population was the real inspiration, noting: “In Islam, the faces of prophets are not depicted.”

Officials defend installation

Brussels Mayor Philippe Close, a Socialist Party member, defended the decision. At a Friday press conference, Close stated: “In this Christmas period, we need to tone it down,” adding that the city wanted to maintain the Nativity tradition while others had removed theirs entirely.

“The old Nativity scene had been in use for 25 years and was showing many defects,” Close said. “It was time to take a new direction. We are very happy with Victoria-Maria’s creation, and we want to make sure the artist is not attacked personally.”

Dean Benoît Lobet of Sts. Michael and Gudula Cathedral also defended the installation, interpreting the crumpled fabrics as symbols of precariousness: “The historical figures in the Nativity were precarious people who were rejected everywhere.”

The controversy intensified over the weekend when the baby Jesus figure’s head was removed, with an unknown perpetrator stealing the cloth head. City officials have replaced the figure and said they will monitor the scene more closely.

International reaction after vandalism

The installation is scheduled to remain on the UNESCO World Heritage site for at least five years. Bouchez’s Liberal party has launched a petition calling for the return of a traditional Nativity scene, stating: “These faceless figures look more like a tribute to the zombies you find around Brussels’ train stations than a Nativity scene.”

The debate has extended beyond Belgium’s borders, with international media framing it as emblematic of broader tensions over European identity and religious heritage in an increasingly diverse continent.

Three Augustinian nuns (pictured on Sept. 16, 2025) fled their nursing home and returned to their convent in Austria. / Credit: Courtesy of Nonnen_Goldenstein

EWTN News, Dec 2, 2025 / 09:14 am (CNA).

An attempt at an amicable solution in the conflict over Goldenstein Monastery in Austria has failed: The three elderly Augustinian nuns have rejected a compromise offer from their religious superior, Father Markus Grasl, provost of Reichersberg Abbey. Now Rome is expected to decide.

“We are surprised and disappointed by the sisters’ decision. What Grasl already said is coming true: Now the next authority, namely Rome, will be involved,” Grasl’s spokesperson told the Austrian news agency Kathpress.

The religious superior had presented an agreement last Thursday that would have allowed the sisters, who are between 81 and 88 years old, to remain in Goldenstein. This accommodated their expressed wish, although he continued to prefer placement in a nursing home for medical reasons.

The agreement stipulated that the three sisters could continue living in the monastery — but under certain conditions. These included the restoration of the cloister, meaning the monastic rules for retreat and prayer that include areas off limits to nonmembers of the order. In addition, spiritual accompaniment by a priest from Reichersberg Abbey, 24-hour care, and reliable medical care were to be ensured. Registration on the waiting list of a nursing home in Elsbethen “within sight of the monastery” was also part of the offer.

Just one day later, the sisters rejected the agreement. According to APA (Austrian Press Agency), the proposal was turned down because of the conditions attached to it. Grasl had demanded the immediate “cessation of all social media activities” as well as “all active media contacts.”

Another condition stated that the sisters “immediately relieve of duty all lawyers and jurists acting on their behalf” and permanently refrain from “any legal activities.” In addition, supporters were to withdraw from the monastery and no longer make decisions for the canonesses.

Conflict over Augustinian canonesses of Goldenstein

The conflict over the nuns of Goldenstein has been ongoing for years, as CNA Deutsch, CNA’s German-language news partner, reported. After the community shrank to fewer than five sisters with perpetual vows in September 2020, the Vatican’s Dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life withdrew the right to elect their own superior, in accordance with the directive Cor Orans.

In 2022, the Vatican appointed Grasl as spiritual superior of the Goldenstein sisters. That same year, the three remaining religious transferred the monastery in equal halves to the Archdiocese of Salzburg and Reichersberg Abbey.

In the transfer agreement, the sisters were granted a lifetime right of residence — but only “as long as it is medically and spiritually reasonable.” After several hospitalizations, Grasl ordered the relocation of the three nuns to the Schloss Kahlsperg senior residence near Hallein in December 2023.

He justified this decision by the advanced age and poor health of the sisters as well as the deteriorated structural condition of the monastery. An independent life in Goldenstein was therefore no longer possible — neither for health reasons nor spiritual or structural ones.

In September 2025, the three nuns — Sister Rita, Sister Regina, and Sister Bernadette — left the nursing home and occupied their former monastery. They received broad social support from around 200 helpers and international media attention, including from BBC and CNN.

In early October, the three nuns continued their legal conflict with the order leadership. Through their lawyer, they submitted a factual statement to the Salzburg prosecutor’s office for the second time.

In it, the sisters called for an investigation of six “matters requiring examination” directed particularly against Grasl, who is responsible for them, as CNA Deutsch reported.

This story was first published by CNA Deutsch, CNA's German-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by Catholic News Agency.

A person detained is taken to a parking lot on the far north side of the city before being transferred to an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Chicago on Oct. 31, 2025. / Credit: Jamie Kelter Davis/Getty Images

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Dec 2, 2025 / 06:00 am (CNA).

Catholic bishops in the United States have expressed unified disapproval of the “indiscriminate mass deportation of people” as the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) reported over 527,000 deportations and another 1.6 million self-deportations since Jan. 20.

Several Catholics in the Trump administration, such as Vice President JD Vance and Border czar Tom Homan, have invoked their faith to defend the heavy crackdown on migrants who do not have legal status in the country after the bishops’ message of dismay.

Caring for immigrants is a clear command in Scripture. Catholic teaching on the matter of mass deportations is somewhat nuanced, with obligations on wealthy countries to welcome immigrants and responsibilities for immigrants to follow the laws of the nations receiving them. The Catholic approach to immigration in recent decades has underscored mercy and respect for the migrants’ human dignity and prudence on the part of public officials to safeguard the common good, with an emphasis on a response to migrants that “welcomes, protects, promotes, and integrates.”

While Catholic teaching affirms human dignity and the right to migrate when necessary, debate has centered on the means of immigration policy.

When is a deportation policy ‘intrinsically evil’?

If something is “intrinsically evil,” it means that it is immoral under any circumstance and for any reason, regardless of one’s motivation or the intended consequence of the action. That term is reserved for actions themselves that can never be morally justified.

As St. John Paul II explained in his 1993 encyclical Veritatis Splendor, an “intrinsically evil” act is one that, by its very nature, is “incapable of being ordered to God” because the act is in conflict with “the good of the person made in his image.”

He cites Gaudium et Spes, the pastoral constitution on the Church in the modern world issued by the Second Vatican Council in 1965, to offer some examples of intrinsic evils.

Although the council itself does not use the term “intrinsically evil,” he references the council’s description of actions that are “opposed to life itself,” which include “murder, genocide, abortion, euthanasia, or willful self-destruction.” It also lists, among other things, action that “insults human dignity,” such as “subhuman living conditions, arbitrary imprisonment, deportation, slavery, prostitution, [and] the selling of women and children.”

Neither John Paul II nor the council elaborate on the meaning of “deportation” in this context in those specific documents. Although, in his 1991 encyclical Centesimus Annus, the Holy Father spoke about deportations within the context of forced removal of people during World War II: “As a result of this violent division of Europe, enormous masses of people were compelled to leave their homeland or were forcibly deported.”

Joseph Capizzi, dean of the School of Theology and Religious Studies at The Catholic University of America, told CNA the context appears to refer to deportations that are both “arbitrary” and “without due process,” like during World War II.

“The context was, of course, mass deportations of people absent any due process and their treatment as movable property, or chattel,” he said. “That is by definition treating those humans as subhuman, offending their God-given status by their creation in his image and likeness.”

In relation to “subhuman living conditions” being intrinsically evil, Capizzi said all people “must be treated as humans” regardless of legal status. No person, he said, can be treated “with cruelty” or “absent basic human regard.”

Father Thomas Petri, OP, a moral theologian and former president of the Dominican House of Studies, told CNA that deportation, as an enforcement of immigration law, “in and of itself can’t be intrinsically evil.”

“There is going to be prudential debate and prudential discussion on what constitutes immoral, evil deportation,” Petri said.

“Even if there’s disagreement on who should be deported, when the deportation happens, it should happen in a way that doesn’t undermine the dignity of those being deported,” he said.

“Even when there is justified deportation, …  those who are being deported [must be treated] … humanely, respecting human dignity, which includes the natural rights to food, human living conditions [and] … access to religion,” Petri said.

“Anything that contradicts or harms their human dignity is certainly grave,” Petri said.

When can governments limit immigration?

The Church has consistently encouraged nations to welcome the stranger, in line with Christ’s command in Matthew 25:35, and has also recognized the government’s need to protect the common good.

In 1988, the Pontifical Commission for Justice and Peace issued a document called “The Church and Racism,” which addressed the subject.

For immigrants and refugees, the commission said governments must ensure their “basic human rights be recognized and guaranteed.” Such people could be “victims of racial prejudice” and are at risk of “various forms of exploitation, be it economic or other.”

The document also acknowledged that public powers are “responsible for the common good” and must “determine the number of refugees or immigrants which their country can accept.” The governments should consider “possibilities for employment and its perspectives for development but also the urgency of the need of other people.”

Another concern is a need to avoid “a serious social imbalance” that could be created “when an overly heavy concentration of persons from another culture is perceived as directly threatening the identity and customs of the local community that receives them.”

Pope Pius XII made similar observations when addressing American officials in 1946, saying then: “it is not surprising that changing circumstances have brought about a certain restriction being placed on foreign immigration” and “in this matter not only the interests of the immigrant but the welfare of the country also must be consulted.”

Such restrictions, he said, should still never forget “Christian charity and the sense of human solidarity existing between all men, children of the one eternal God and Father.”

The Catechism of the Catholic Church sums up the Church’s position, teaching that prosperous nations have an obligation, “to the extent they are able, to welcome the foreigner.” The immigrant has an obligation “to respect with gratitude the material and spiritual heritage of the country that receives them, to obey its laws and to assist in carrying civic burdens.”

“Political authorities, for the sake of the common good for which they are responsible, may make the exercise of the right to immigrate subject to various juridical conditions,” it adds, without touting mass deportation as a moral ideal.

Capizzi said governments must “protect an actual common good.” For immigration law, he said this means “sometimes by allowing immigrants in to assist, and also by limiting immigration to allow immigrants’ integration into the host nation, and to protect the nation’s work force.”

Enforcement, he said, can occur after a person has unlawfully entered, but cases that require deportation should inspire more prudence.

Petri said the primary concern comes “when you’re talking about [people] who have been in this country for 20 years.”

“There is a moral difference between deporting hard and violent criminals and deporting, say, a husband and a wife who have just tried to make a living,” he said.

Bishop Mario Avilés. / Credit: Photo courtesy of the Diocese of Brownsville

Vatican City, Dec 1, 2025 / 13:44 pm (CNA).

Pope Leo XIV on Monday appointed Bishop Mario Avilés as the new bishop of Corpus Christi, selecting the Mexican-born Oratorian to lead the south Texas diocese. 

Avilés, 56, who has served as auxiliary bishop of Brownsville, Texas, since February 2018, will succeed Bishop Michael Mulvey, 76. Mulvey has led the Diocese of Corpus Christi since 2010.  

“We welcome Bishop-designate Avilés with open hearts and deep prayer,” Mulvey said in a statement after the Vatican announcement on Dec. 1. 

As the ninth bishop of Corpus Christi, Avilés will take responsibility for the spiritual leadership of more than 200,000 Catholics across a 12-county region in south Texas. 

“The Diocese of Brownsville will greatly miss Bishop Mario’s wise counsel and good judgment, his joyful presence in our parish communities, and his administrative skills in the service of our diocesan offices and Catholic schools. Yet at the same time we share in the special joy of the Diocese of Corpus Christi at the news of Bishop Mario’s appointment,” Brownsville Bishop Daniel Flores said in a statement. 

Avilés was born on Sept. 16, 1969, in Mexico City. In 1986, he joined the Congregation of the Oratory of St. Philip Neri, a pontifical society of apostolic life composed of priests and lay brothers founded in 1575, which now has more than 70 oratories worldwide.

He studied for the priesthood in Mexico City before continuing his education in Rome, earning bachelor’s degrees in philosophy and sacred theology at the Pontifical Athenaeum Regina Apostolorum. He also holds a master’s degree in education administration and supervision and is a certified teacher in the state of Texas.

At the age of 28, Avilés was ordained a priest in the Basilica of Our Lady of San Juan del Valle National Shrine in San Juan, Texas. He became parochial vicar at St. Jude Thaddeus Church in Pharr and worked in the Pharr Oratory Schools as a governance board member, teacher, principal, and rector. He also served as vicar, secretary, treasurer, and novice master for the Oratorian congregation. 

From 2000 to 2012, he served on the Permanent Deputation of the Confederation of the Oratory of St. Philip Neri for Latin America. At the congregation’s 2012 General Congress, he was elected procurator general of the confederation, a Rome-based role representing Oratorian communities to the Holy See. He speaks Spanish, English, and Italian.

Avilés’ episcopal motto is “Caritas Dei diffusa est in cordibus nostris,” meaning “The love of God has been poured out into our hearts,” a reference to Romans 5:5 and the introit of the Mass for the feast of St. Philip Neri. His crest includes red roses honoring Our Lady of Guadalupe and his Mexican heritage as well as three gold stars drawn from the Neri family crest, symbolizing his long affiliation with the oratory.

“I ask all the faithful of the Diocese of Brownsville to pray for Bishop Mario as he prepares to take up his new mission of service in Corpus Christi,” Flores said. “May God bless Bishop Mario Avilés and may the maternal care of the blessed and ever-immaculate Virgin Mary accompany him always.”