Ss. Cyril and Methodius Ukrainian Catholic Church

Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris. / Credit: Gabriele Maltinti/Shutterstock

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Mar 26, 2025 / 15:15 pm (CNA).

France’s National Independent Authority for Recognition and Reparation (INIRR) has compensated nearly 850 victims of clergy sex abuse since 2021, according to its latest report released on Wednesday. 

The annual report for 2024 states that since 2021, the organization has resolved 852 cases, with 99% involving financial compensation. 

INIRR President Marie Derain de Vaucresson wrote in a statement accompanying the report that 350 cases are still pending. 

The French conference of Catholic bishops established INIRR in November 2021 after the explosive Independent Commission on Sexual Abuse in the Church (CAISE) report released in October of that year found at the time that hundreds of thousands of children were abused in the Catholic Church in France in the past 70 years. 

The almost 2,500-page report said an estimated 216,000 children were abused by priests, deacons, monks, or nuns from 1950 to 2020.

It added that when abuse by other Church workers was also taken into account, “the estimated number of child victims rises to 330,000 for the whole of the period.”

INIRR works to help provide financial compensation and pathways for legal justice to victims who come forward with credible claims of abuse. The organization can provide a maximum compensation of 60,000 euros (approximately $64,800). 

The organization’s latest report states that as of December 2024, 132 victims have received the maximum amount of compensation, while the average compensation package for 2024 was about $39,350. 

As of this month, a total of 1,580 people purporting to be victims of clergy abuse have contacted INIRR in the past four years, while “1,235 are being [currently] supported” by one of its staff. 

In 2024, the total number of new cases reported was 168. The report states that between the years of 2023 and 2024, “the number of referrals is almost equivalent,” though the organization saw an uptick in February 2024 due to increased media coverage of the issue. 

As the report noted, the average number of cases reported to the organization tripled from the usual 10 or so per month to 31 cases in February of that year amid heightened publicity surrounding two major sex abuse scandals in France involving a Catholic school near Lourdes, Notre Dame de Bétharram, and the late French priest Abbé Pierre. 

According to reports, over 150 individuals have filed complaints of sexual abuse at the Bétharram school, a scandal that sparked national interest not only on account of the scale of reported abuse but also due to widespread accusations that the country’s embattled prime minister, Francois Bayrou, turned a blind eye to the abuse. 

Bayrou’s children attended the school, located in the southwest city of Pau, where he is still mayor, and his wife once worked as a teacher there. 

As for Abbé Pierre, the Capuchin priest and founder of the poverty ministry known as Emmaus, the bishops of France requested in January that prosecutors launch a criminal investigation into the 33 sexual abuse allegations made against him. This came after nine new cases were reported. 

Allegations against the priest were first reported in 2023 when Emmaus France received a statement from a woman accusing Pierre of sexual assault. Further testimonies were released in July 2024 in an independent report commissioned by Emmaus. 

The documented allegations span multiple decades, from the 1950s through the 2000s, with victims including Emmaus employees, volunteers, and young women in Pierre’s social circle.

INIRR is set to continue its operations until June 2026, though there are talks among the French bishops of making the coalition a permanent fixture, according to a report from Le Croix. 

Maltese priest Fabio Attard was elected rector major of the Salesians for the next six years. / Credit: Courtesy of Salesian Family

ACI Prensa Staff, Mar 26, 2025 / 13:05 pm (CNA).

Maltese priest Fabio Attard was elected as the new rector major of the Salesian congregation during its general chapter in Turin, Italy, becoming the 11th successor of St. John Bosco.

The new superior general of the order founded in 1859 succeeds Spanish Cardinal Ángel Fernández Artime, who became prefect of the Dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life in January.

According to the Salesians, the new rector major did not participate in the Salesian chapter meeting, so he was informed of his election by telephone, at which point he was asked for his required acceptance.

“His words were heard in the hall and, moved to tears, he thanked the brothers for their trust and especially for their trust in God in taking on this new task,” the Salesians said in a statement.

This is the first time that the new rector major is not among the members of the general chapter, “so the profession of faith upon accepting the office and the greeting from the chapter members and the mother general of the Salesians Daughters of Mary Help of Christians will take place throughout the day, when the new rector major can make it to Turin.”

Attard will now have six years to lead the Salesian family, which will begin with the work remaining at the general chapter, which will last until April 12.

The priest’s election came two days after his 66th birthday. Born in Gozo, Malta, he made his profession as a Salesian in September 1980 in Dublin, Ireland, where he completed his novitiate.

Both his diaconal and priestly ordinations took place in Rome in 1986 and 1987, respectively. After leading several Salesian apostolates in Malta, he founded the Institute for Pastoral Formation of the Archdiocese of Malta in 2005.

With a licentiate in moral theology from the Alphonsianum in Rome, Attard participated in the general chapter held in 2008 as delegate for the Irish province and was entrusted with youth ministry until April 2020, when Artime asked him to create a continuing formation project for Salesians in Europe.

Since 2018, he has been a consultant to the Dicastery for the Laity, Family, and Life, a position he continues to hold today.

This week, the other members of the general council will be elected: the vicar of the rector major, the four sector councilors (formation, youth ministry, social communications, and missions), the treasurer, and the nine regional councilors for each of the regions into which the congregation is divided.

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

Holy Name Cathedral in Chicago. / Credit: Edlane De Mattos/Shutterstock

CNA Staff, Mar 26, 2025 / 11:20 am (CNA).

The Archdiocese of Chicago this week filed a lawsuit alleging a “racketeering enterprise” among a group of individuals who reportedly filed false abuse claims against a former priest to receive compensation from the Church there. 

The archdiocese said in a Monday statement that it had filed a lawsuit in Cook County circuit court “seeking injunctive relief and damages from participants of a wide-ranging racketeering scheme” that reportedly involved “more than a dozen” fraudulent abuse claims against disgraced former priest Daniel McCormack, who spent more than a decade in prison after pleading guilty to abusing young children.

Lawyers for the diocese did not respond to requests for comment and for a copy of the lawsuit on Wednesday morning. The diocese said in its press release that some of the participants in the alleged scheme are “convicted felons and known gang members,” including allegedly one convicted murderer.

The alleged fraudulent claimants are “associated by gang affiliation, friendship, or family,” the archdiocese said, with the conspirators reportedly working together to determine “what to say, how to pursue a false claim, how to embellish purported injuries, and how to reach attorneys.”

Some of the alleged fraudsters reportedly discussed the scams on prison phone calls. One of the defendants reportedly told a fellow conspirator that he did not go to MCormack’s church and “wasn’t even in” any programs involved with him, and yet he he still received compensation. 

The Cook County circuit court has already ruled on two other fraudulent abuse cases, the archdiocese said. The filing “reflects the breadth of the fraud and seeks to expose the conspiracy that has become a criminal enterprise for those involved,” the statement said. 

“False claims make it necessary to investigate all claims more aggressively, which places a greater burden on true survivors,” archdiocesan attorney James Geoly said. 

“Our attention is directed toward survivors, not fraudsters seeking to gain financially from others’ pain and suffering,” he added. 

McCormack pleaded guilty in 2007 to multiple abuse charges. He served a sentence in prison and was then remanded to a state facility for sex offenders. 

He was released from custody in 2021 and currently lives in Chicago, where he is registered as a sex offender. The Illinois attorney general’s office described him as “one of the most infamous child abusers anywhere in Illinois.”

“It has been disappointing to see how seldom a CPC designation has resulted in real consequences for those responsible for religious freedom violations,” U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom Chairman Stephen Schneck told CNA. / Credit: U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom Public Hearing/Screenshot

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Mar 26, 2025 / 09:30 am (CNA).

The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) is urging President Donald Trump to ensure that religious freedom violations by foreign governments result in severe consequences, such as sanctions, for the aggressors.

The USCIRF, which is a federal commission tasked with providing policy recommendations on advancing religious liberty abroad, conveyed those recommendations in its 2025 Annual Report published on March 25.

“Make appropriate policy changes to demonstrate meaningful consequences and encourage positive change,” the report recommends.

The report urges the Trump administration to impose consequences on countries that the U.S. Department of State currently designates as countries of particular concern (CPCs), which is the label given to countries with “systematic, ongoing, and egregious” religious freedom violations.

The State Department designates 12 countries as CPCs, including China, Cuba, Iran, Nicaragua, Pakistan, Russia, and Saudi Arabia. The report recommends renewing these designations and adding four other countries to the CPC list: Afghanistan, India, Nigeria, and Vietnam.

During the last year of Trump’s first term in office, the department designated Nigeria as a CPC, but that designation was not renewed by former President Joe Biden. The USCIRF repeatedly urged the previous administration to include Nigeria on the list during Biden’s time in office.

Tens of thousands of people have been killed in ethnic and religious violence in Nigeria over the past few years. Christians were 6.5 times more likely to be killed and 5.1 times more likely to be victims of abduction. However, Muslims and other religious groups have also been victims of the violence.

“Religious freedom conditions in Nigeria [have] remained poor,” the report notes. “Federal and state governments continued to tolerate attacks or fail to respond to violent actions by nonstate actors who justify their violence on religious grounds.”

The report further noted that “in 2024, religious freedom conditions in Nicaragua remained abysmal.” Nicaragua President Daniel Ortega has expelled religious sisters, shut down Catholic schools and media outlets, and imprisoned dozens of Catholic clergy who oppose his socialist government. His regime has also targeted other Christian denominations. 

“Religious communities in Nicaragua have continued to show remarkable resilience in the face of such threats,” the report notes. “Their members meet discreetly — sometimes in the middle of the night — to exercise their freedom of religion or belief. They continue to provide aid to each other while meeting communal spiritual needs, although the Nicaraguan government views each of these modest acts as deplorable.”

Although federal law requires that administrations take action against CPC designees, a report published by USCIRF last September found that since 1998 some 164 CPC designations have only led to three new sanctions and one “binding agreement” entered into with the United States. It found that American presidents have frequently found workarounds to taking action, such as appealing to existing sanctions to justify no new action or simply waiving the requirement.

In its 2025 report, the USCIRF is urging the new administration to change that approach by reviewing its policies toward CPC countries in which waivers are in place. It also urges Trump officials to consider lifting existing waivers and to not issue waivers for future CPC designees.

The recommendations include targeted sanctions on the Taliban in Afghanistan, the military junta in Myanmar, certain Chinese Communist Party (CCP) entities and officials, and Eritrean government officials. It also encourages targeted sanctions in Iran, Nicaragua, and India for individuals and entities violating religious liberty.

Additionally, the commission urges Trump to nominate or appoint individuals to fill key roles that are relevant to religious freedom abroad.

The report also encourages the Trump administration to resettle refugees fleeing religious persecution through the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program — a program that Trump has paused. It also requests that the administration establish a plan to fully comply with asylum laws.

USCIRF commissioners are appointed to two-year terms. Three are chosen by the president and the others are chosen by House and Senate leadership. Most of the terms of current members end in May 2026, although one term for one of Biden’s appointees will expire in May 2025.

Thousands particpate in a Eucharistic procession sponsored by the Napa Institute through the streets of Manhattan in New York City on Oct. 15, 2024. / Credit: Jeffrey Bruno

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Mar 26, 2025 / 07:00 am (CNA).

The Catholic nonprofit organization Napa Institute is pushing for more collaboration among Catholic and Protestant leaders to promote cultural values and aims that are common to both communities.

Earlier this month, Napa Institute Board Chairman Tim Busch hosted a meeting among 15 Catholic and Protestant faith leaders for the organization’s first Ecumenical Forum in New York City, according to a news release.

The Napa Institute works to promote the re-evangelization of the United States and the defense of Catholicism in the public square.

While recognizing the differences between Catholicism and Protestantism, Busch emphasized that there is shared agreement on many central tenets of the faith, such as in the Apostles’ Creed and the Nicene Creed. Certain goals, he noted, could be better accomplished to the extent that both groups work together.

The two groups, Busch stated, “share a profound concern about rising cultural hostility to core Christian teachings and truths.”

“We all believe in the sanctity and right understanding of marriage,” he said. “We are all committed to defending the unborn and vulnerable mothers. And we know that religious liberty is a fundamental right that must be protected in modern society.”

The attendees agreed to establish a steering committee to host more ecumenical gatherings and to develop more partnerships. Busch also indicated that he would involve “a limited number of Protestants” at Napa’s summer conference.

In an interview with CNA, Busch said some of the legal and political shifts that are of common concern include the arrests of pro-life advocates protesting abortion clinics, the promotion of abortion, and the embrace of same-sex marriage and gender ideology.

Essentially, Busch said there is a “dilution of biblical teachings” in public life. He further said the American embrace of “wokeism” is “really just a form of pagan religion that promises utopia on Earth … [that] fails to recognize it’s not a free-for-all. There are certain principles all of us need to follow.”

“The devil’s really the enemy, but the devil working through people has made an abomination of God’s teaching within our society,” he told CNA.

Busch added that many Protestants no longer view the Catholic Church in a hostile way, in spite of historical anti-Catholicism within some elements of American society. He said “the hatred of Catholics [has been] significantly mitigated” in recent decades, adding there is “an opportunity today that did not exist before to collaborate.” 

Catholics at the meeting included Father Ambrose Criste, a priest at St. Michael’s Abbey in California, and Bishop Steven Lopes, a bishop in the Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter. Protestant leaders in attendance included executives from Christianity Today and the InterVarsity Christian Fellowship.

In Napa’s news release on the meeting, Busch indicated that every attendee agreed to work together to promote common values in American culture and law and acknowledge that “spiritual warfare is real and worsening.” He added that “the path forward depends on prayer and our shared faith in Jesus Christ” as a means to advance the common good in the United States.

Busch added that his intention when he began the Napa Institute was to prepare Catholics for what Philadelphia Archbishop Emeritus Charles Chaput called the “next America.” The “next America” refers to a United States in which Christian views and Christianity are viewed in a hostile way.

“The next America has arrived, and as we confront the challenges ahead, it will help us to work with Protestants to defend our faith and the truth,” Busch wrote. “I hope this ecumenical forum is the start of many such collaborations. It may be the first time we’ve done this, but it won’t be the last.”

Pope Francis greets His Royal Highness Prince Charles of Wales at the canonization of St. John Henry Newman at the Vatican on Oct. 13, 2019. / Credit: Vatican Media

CNA Staff, Mar 25, 2025 / 18:35 pm (CNA).

King Charles and Queen Camilla postponed their visit to the Vatican at the advice of Pope Francis’ doctors, who say the Holy Father needs more rest time following his recent illness. 

The royal couple was set to visit the Vatican in early April to celebrate the 2025 Jubilee but announced the postponement of their visit on Tuesday due to Pope Francis’ health. Their audience with Pope Francis, now canceled, would have been on April 8. 

The postponement was mutual, according to a March 25 statement from Buckingham Palace.

“The king and queen’s state visit to the Holy See has been postponed by mutual agreement, as medical advice has now suggested that Pope Francis would benefit from an extended period of rest and recuperation,” read a post on X by the royal family.

The royal family also shared their good wishes for Pope Francis’ recovery.  

“Their majesties send the pope their best wishes for his convalescence and look forward to visiting him in the Holy See once he has recovered,” the statement continued.

Pope Francis, 88, was admitted to Rome’s Gemelli Hospital on Friday, Feb. 14, to undergo testing and treatment for bronchitis. More than a month later, he was discharged from the hospital, making his first public appearance in 38 days this past Sunday. 

The initial visit, according to the palace, was designed to “mark a significant step forward in relations between the Catholic Church and Church of England.”

The visit would have included an ecumenical service in the Sistine Chapel focused on the theme “Care for Creation.”

As part of the visit, King Charles was also set to visit the Papal Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls, “with which English kings had a particular link until the Reformation,” according to the palace press release.

King Charles would have also met with a reception of British seminarians, while Queen Camilla had been set to meet with Catholic religious sisters from the International Union of Superiors General, which highlights girls’ education, health care access, and prevention of human trafficking. 

The royal couple will go ahead with the other components of their April state visit to Italy.

Zachary Liberto, 30, was arrested March 22, 2025, and charged with commissioning an act of terrorism for allegedly sending an email to a member of the staff at St. Louis Catholic Church in Memphis, Tennessee, expressing his intent to “butcher” Catholics with a machete. / Credit: Shelby County Sheriff’s Office

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Mar 25, 2025 / 16:45 pm (CNA).

The Memphis Police Department (MPD) last week arrested a 30-year-old man who is accused of sending a threatening email to a local Catholic parish expressing his intent to “butcher” Catholics with a machete.

Zachary Liberto, who lives in Memphis, was charged with commissioning an act of terrorism for allegedly sending the email to a member of the staff at St. Louis Catholic Church, which is on the eastern side of the city. If convicted, he could face between 15 and 60 years in prison.

According to a police report provided to CNA, Liberto is accused of sending an email to the parish’s music director on March 20 containing the threat against parishioners.

Liberto had reportedly requested video footage of an unrelated incident as part of the threat. “I need a video of [the unnamed person] getting slapped by you in 24 hours before I butcher people in that church with a machete,” the email sent to the music director read, according to the MPD report.

The music director forwarded the email to the unnamed person mentioned within it, who subsequently filed a complaint with the MPD.

According to the report, the complainant said Liberto is known to have a machete, which he allegedly nicknamed “chete.” The complainant also claimed Liberto has mentioned in the past that he owns a firearm.

The person who filed the complaint told police that Liberto lives in a homeless encampment in the city. The complainant and the music director both told police that Liberto has an unknown mental illness.

According to the police report, the music director said he and Liberto had communicated by email before. It also stated that neither the music director nor the unnamed person know what prompted Liberto to allegedly send the threatening email.

The suspect has a mental evaluation hearing scheduled for the morning of April 7, according to police.

Rick Ouellette, a spokesman for the Diocese of Memphis, told CNA that the parish also found garbage placed in the baptismal font on the same day as the threatening email. Both of these incidents combined prompted the parish to alert the authorities immediately.

Ouellette said Liberto was known to some members of the parish staff and that he had come to the church before.

“Our St. Louis staff notified authorities immediately of the incident,” Ouellette added. “The parish thanks the authorities for their quick response in apprehending a suspect. The incident is also a reminder to everyone that our St. Louis parish has a solid safety and security plan in place as does our 46 parishes and 13 schools in West Tennessee.” 

Ouellette said there were not any physical or verbal confrontations between Liberto and parish staff or parishioners.

“We’re praying for everybody involved,” Ouellette added.

null / Credit: Cassiohabib/Shutterstock

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Mar 25, 2025 / 14:30 pm (CNA).

Catholic nurse practitioner Gudrun Kristofersdottir recently agreed to a settlement in a religious discrimination case against CVS, her lawyers have announced. 

Kristofersdottir initially filed a lawsuit in 2024 following her termination from a Florida CVS MinuteClinic after she refused to prescribe contraceptives or drugs that could cause abortions.

The nurse practitioner was originally granted a religious accommodation from 2014 to 2022 that allowed her to refuse to prescribe contraceptives and abortifacients.

First Liberty Institute, which represented Kristofersdottir in the suit, said that when patients sought out contraceptives from Kristofersdottir, she would simply refer them to a different provider who would prescribe the medication. 

In 2021, CVS announced it would revoke all such religious accommodations. Kristofersdottir was subsequently fired in April 2022. 

Upon filing the lawsuit, First Liberty Institute attorney Stephanie Taub described it as “illegal to issue a blanket revocation of all religious accommodations when CVS can accommodate its employees.”

“CVS is sending a message that religious health care workers are not welcome and need not apply,” Taub said at the time.

The pharmacy “could have accommodated Ms. Kristofersdottir in several ways,” the suit argued, including by “transferring her to a virtual position, a larger clinic, an education or training position, or a location specializing in COVID-19, or continuing to honor the religious accommodation that worked successfully for years.”

In her lawsuit, Kristofersdottir said she believes the teachings of the Church regarding human dignity and marriage, and therefore that “the procreative potential of intercourse may not be subverted by device or procedure.” 

“Further, Ms. Kristofersdottir believes that abortion constitutes a moral evil in violation of humanity’s obligation to protect life with the utmost care from the moment of conception,” the suit said.

On March 21, First Liberty announced a settlement between the two parties. “We are happy to announce that we were able to reach a resolution of the case,” Taub said. 

The details of the agreement have not been made public, but Taub said Kristofersdottir “is pleased with the settlement.”

This is not the only instance of a medical official suing CVS over religious accommodations. Robyn Strader, a Texas-based nurse, sued CVS in 2023 after losing her religious exemption from prescribing contraceptives or abortion-causing drugs.

Similar to Kristofersdottir, Strader also had a long-standing accommodation that was honored for more than six years before the company dismantled it. Her case was settled with CVS in 2024.

Bishop Mark Seitz speaks at a rally for immigrants and refugees at the Diocese of El Paso, Texas, on Monday, March 24, 2025. / Credit: Father Miguel Briseño, OFM Conv

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Mar 25, 2025 / 13:45 pm (CNA).

The Diocese of El Paso, Texas, held a march and vigil in solidarity with migrants and refugees in the city center on Monday evening, with Bishop Mark Seitz criticizing the Trump administration’s aggressive immigration enforcement as a “war on the poor.” 

“I am very grateful that we have come together this evening as a borderland community,” Seitz said during remarks delivered at the vigil. “How wonderful it is to have moments when we can celebrate and recommit to who we are, and to do so in the presence of God.” 

The event fell on the 45th anniversary of the killing of St. Oscar Romero, an El Salvadoran bishop who was assassinated at a hospital chapel in 1980 amid a civil war between leftist guerrillas and the right-wing government that eventually left about 75,000 dead.

“We place ourselves and our community under [Romero’s] protection this night,” said Seitz, who also serves as the chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Migration.

Several bishops from across the country and from Mexico and Canada attended the march and vigil, including Bishop Peter Baldacchino of Las Cruces, New Mexico; Bishop Emeritus Noel Simard of Valleyfield, Quebec, Canada; Archbishop Gustavo García-Siller of San Antonio; Bishop John Stowe of Lexington, Kentucky; and Cardinal Fabio Baggio, undersecretary for the Vatican’s Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development. Faith leaders of various other traditions were also present.

In his remarks, Seitz reflected on what he described as Romero’s Christ-like disposition of sacrifice for his country, quoting an interview the saint gave before his death, during which he said: “If they kill me, I will rise again in the people of El Salvador. If they manage to carry out their threats, as of now, I offer my blood for the redemption of El Salvador.” 

“We are here tonight to celebrate our community. Community is an exchange of gifts, where we gift our lives to one another, for the benefit of one another; we grow together, and we bear one another’s burdens,” Seitz said. “Jesus offered his life in sacrifice for that body. Romero offered his life in sacrifice for that body.”

“When we look around the world right now, it is that sense of community for which Jesus and Romero gave their lives that is under attack,” the bishop continued. “This is what the denial of asylum and the threat of mass deportations represent. A fundamental attack on human community. On the body. On Jesus’ vision of a fully reconciled humanity.”

The bishop went on to describe the Trump administration’s border closure as a “war on the poor” and mass deportation efforts as “another tool to keep people afraid, to keep people divided, to extinguish the charity and love that keep a people alive.” 

“To my people here tonight and to all across our country who live in fear of deportation and family separation: know of our love and commitment, which like the love of Jesus, goes all the way down, to the limits. The Church stands with you in this hour of darkness,” he said. 

“And to those in a position of responsibility for our country, who steward our common good, I make this urgent plea: Stop the asylum ban! Stop the deportations!” 

Additional participating organizations and community leaders included the Episcopal Diocese of the Rio Grande; Iglesia Delta; Trinity First United Methodist Church; Abara; Auxiliary Bishop Anthony Celino of the Diocese of El Paso; Ruben Garcia of Annunciation House; Melissa Lopez of Estrella del Paso; and other faith and civic leaders from El Paso.

A poster of “polysexual” flags is displayed at Upper Elementary School in North Hanover Township, New Jersey, and is plaintiff Angela Reading’s exhibit attached to the complaint of a now-federal lawsuit. / Credit: Screenshot/Thomas More Society

National Catholic Register, Mar 25, 2025 / 13:00 pm (CNA).

A New Jersey woman who complained about student-made posters with flags labeled “polysexual,” “pansexual,” “nonbinary,” and “genderqueer” at a public elementary school is suing state and federal agencies, saying they are punishing her by making it harder for her to travel by airplane. 

Angela Reading of North Hanover Township, New Jersey, said she lost her “trusted traveler status” that allowed her to avoid certain aspects of security screening at airports and that on seven domestic flights in 2023 and 2024, she was “subjected to repeated and unusual requests by TSA agents for additional identification and photographing.”

Reading, whose lawyers describe her as a devout Christian, said the agencies and certain individuals violated her First Amendment rights to free speech and free exercise of religion because she publicly opposed what she considers inappropriate material at the school. 

Her opponents say her actions undermined the safety of students and families by exposing them to what one called “right wing extremists.” 

Reading says in court papers that her problems began in November 2022 when she posted on a Facebook group page about posters she saw displayed on the wall. 

“Last night, I attended an elementary ‘Math Night.’ My 7 YO daughter, while reading posters at the school’s main entrance, asked me what ‘polysexual’ means. To say the least, I was livid,” Reading wrote in the Facebook post. “Why are elementary schools promoting/allowing elementary KIDS to research topics of sexuality and create posters? This is not in the state elementary standards (law) nor in the BOE [board of education]-approved curriculum. It’s perverse and should be illegal to expose my kids to sexual content.” 

The superintendent of schools confirmed the content in a December 2022 message to parents, saying that students made posters as part of grades 4–6 Upper Elementary School’s “Week of Respect” and that “some included content that was supportive of the LGBTQ+ community.” 

“On a couple of the posters, this included flags that were labeled for various groups like transsexual, bisexual, lesbian, pansexual, polysexual, etc., along with messages that all people were accepted at their school,” wrote Helen Payne, superintendent of North Hanover Township School District, according to court papers. 

At the time, Reading was an elected member of the Northern Burlington County Board of Education, which has oversight over a grades 7–12 regional school district that includes North Hanover Township, while her husband was an elected member of the local school board that has oversight over the elementary school. 

Both school districts include parents and children associated with a military facility known as Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst. Email messages included as exhibits in Reading’s complaint show that officials who work at the base contacted local and federal authorities about Reading. The first was Maj. Christopher Schilling, a member of the United States Army Reserve, who said in one online post that Reading’s Facebook posts complaining about the posters had “caused safety concerns for many families.”  

“The Joint Base Security Forces are working with multiple law enforcement agencies to monitor the situation to ensure the continued safety of the entire community,” Schilling wrote in an undated online post included among the exhibits with Reading’s complaint. 

His efforts had an effect. 

In one email message dated Nov. 30, 2022, the local police chief, Robert Duff, said he contacted the administrator of a Facebook group page with “concerns about the post” from Reading and that the administrator “respectfully removed the post from Facebook” — after, according to court papers, he told the administrator of the page “that students could die if she did not remove the post, drawing parallels to the devastating incidents at Uvalde Elementary School and the Colorado Springs nightclub,” mass shootings that occurred in May 2022 in Texas and in November 2022 in Colorado, respectively. 

The same day as the police chief’s email message, the anti-terrorism program manager of the 87th Security Forces Squadron at the military base, Joe Vazquez, sent an email message saying he was contacting “our partners with N.J. Office of Homeland Security and Preparedness as well as the N.J. State Police Regional Operations Intelligence Center,” explaining:  “Both agencies’ analysts keep an eye on far-right/hate groups.”

Reading resigned from the regional school board Dec. 7, 2022, during the uproar over her online posts about the posters. Her husband also resigned from the local school board. 

In March 2023, lawyers from the Thomas More Society, a conservative public interest law firm in Chicago, filed a lawsuit on behalf of Reading in U.S. District Court in New Jersey claiming civil rights violations and naming as defendants the township, the superintendent, the police chief, six officers at the base, and a civilian U.S. Air Force employee. 

Earlier this month, on March 12, Reading’s lawyers filed an amended complaint bringing federal agencies into the case. The newly named defendants, sued in their official capacity, are U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem; Adam Stahl, the senior official performing the duties of administrator of the federal Transportation Security Administration; and Laurie Doran, director of the New Jersey Office of Homeland Security and Preparedness. 

The National Catholic Register, CNA’s sister news partner, on Friday contacted spokesmen for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, the federal Transportation Security Administration, and the New Jersey Office of Homeland Security and Preparedness but did not hear back by publication of this story. 

Lawyers for the other defendants — including Schelling, Vazquez, Payne, and Duff — also did not immediately respond to requests for comment Friday. 

The lawsuit is pending. In December 2024, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit rejected Reading’s request for a preliminary injunction against several government officials to prevent them from censoring her speech but found that “much of the government actors’ behavior was beyond the pale.” 

“Reading’s allegations are serious and raise important questions under the free speech clause of the First Amendment,” the panel said in its decision. “Reading expressed concern about whether her 7-year-old daughter was being exposed to sexual topics that have no place in an elementary school. Regardless of whether one agrees with Reading’s concern, the record suggests that defendants’ response to her blog post was, to put it mildly, disproportionate.”

This story was first published by the National Catholic Register, CNA's sister news partner, on March 24, 2025, and has been adapted by CNA.