VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Archbishops around the world can provide by their example the fraternity and unity in diversity the entire Catholic Church needs today, Pope Leo XIV said.

"The whole church needs fraternity, which must be present in all of our relationships, whether between lay people and priests, priests and bishops, bishops and the pope," he said during his homily at Mass on the feast of Sts. Peter and Paul June 29.

"Fraternity is also needed in pastoral care, ecumenical dialogue and the friendly relations that the church desires to maintain with the world," the pope said.

"Let us make an effort, then, to turn our differences into a workshop of unity and communion, of fraternity and reconciliation, so that everyone in the church, each with his or her personal history, may learn to walk side by side," he said. 

The feast day celebration in St. Peter's Basilica included the traditional blessing of the pallium, the woolen band that the heads of archdioceses wear around their shoulders over their Mass vestments and symbolizes an archbishop's unity with the pope and his authority and responsibility to care for the flock the pope entrusted to him.

Pope Leo revived a tradition begun by St. John Paul II in 1983 by personally placing the pallium around the shoulders of the recently named archbishops.

Pope Francis had changed the ceremony starting in 2015. The late pope had invited new archbishops to concelebrate Mass with him and be present for the blessing of the palliums as a way of underlining their bond of unity and communion with him, but the actual imposition of the pallium was done by the nuncio and took place in the archbishop's archdiocese in the presence of his faithful and bishops from neighboring dioceses.

The Office for the Liturgical Celebrations of the Supreme Pontiff issued a formal notification June 11 that on June 29 Pope Leo would preside over the Eucharistic celebration, bless the palliums and impose them on the new metropolitan archbishops. 

According to the Vatican, 54 archbishops from more than two dozen countries who were named over the past 12 months received the palliums. Eight of them were from the United States: Cardinal Robert W. McElroy of Washington; Archbishop W. Shawn McKnight of Kansas City, Kansas; Archbishop Michael G. McGovern of Omaha, Nebraska; Archbishop Robert G. Casey of Cincinnati; Archbishop Joe S. Vásquez of Galveston-Houston; Archbishop Jeffrey S. Grob of Milwaukee; Archbishop Richard G. Henning of Boston; and Archbishop Edward J. Weisenburger of Detroit.
The pope blessed the palliums after they were brought up from the crypt above the tomb of St. Peter. Each archbishop then approached Pope Leo by the altar and either knelt or bowed their head as the pope placed the pallium over their shoulders. Each shared an embrace with the pope and a few words.

In his homily, the pope reflected on Sts. Peter and Paul -- two saints who were martyred on different days and yet share the same feast day.

Sts. Peter and Paul were two very different people with different backgrounds, faith journeys and ways of evangelizing, Pope Leo said. They were at odds over "the proper way to deal with gentile converts" and would debate the issue. 

And yet, they were brothers in the Holy Spirit, and they both shared "a single fate, that of martyrdom, which united them definitively to Christ," he said. 

Their stories have "much to say to us, the community of the Lord's disciples," he said, especially regarding the importance of "ecclesial communion and the vitality of faith."

"The history of Peter and Paul shows us that the communion to which the Lord calls us is a unison of voices and personalities that does not eliminate anyone's freedom," Pope Leo said.

"Our patron saints followed different paths, had different ideas and at times argued with one another with evangelical frankness. Yet this did not prevent them from living the 'concordia apostolorum,' that is, a living communion in the Spirit, a fruitful harmony in diversity," he said.

"It is important that we learn to experience communion in this way -- as unity within diversity -- so that the various gifts, united in the one confession of faith, may advance the preaching of the Gospel," Pope Leo said.

Sts. Peter and Paul challenge Catholics to follow their example of fraternity and to think about "the vitality of our faith," he said. "As disciples, we can always risk falling into a rut, a routine, a tendency to follow the same old pastoral plans without experiencing interior renewal and a willingness to respond to new challenges." 

The two apostles were open to change, new events, encounters and concrete situations in the life of their communities, the pope said, and they were always ready "to consider new approaches to evangelization in response to the problems and difficulties raised by our brothers and sisters in the faith."

In the day's Gospel reading, Jesus asked his disciples, "Who do you say that I am?" which he continues to ask his disciples today, "challenging us to examine whether our faith life retains its energy and vitality, and whether the flame of our relationship with the Lord still burns bright," the pope said. 

"If we want to keep our identity as Christians from being reduced to a relic of the past, as Pope Francis often reminded us, it is important to move beyond a tired and stagnant faith," he said, and ask: "Who is Jesus Christ for us today? What place does he occupy in our lives and in the life of the church? How can we bear witness to this hope in our daily lives and proclaim it to those whom we meet?"

"Brothers and sisters, the exercise of a discernment born of these questions can enable our faith and the faith of the church to be constantly renewed and to find new paths and new approaches to preaching the Gospel. This, together with communion, must be our greatest desire," he said.

Keeping with a long tradition, a delegation from the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople, led by Orthodox Metropolitan Emmanuel Adamakis of Chalcedon, was present at the Mass. Also present were members of the Synod of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church.

The pope and the Orthodox metropolitan also descended the stairs below the main altar to pray at St. Peter's tomb.

"I would like to confirm on this solemn feast that my episcopal ministry is at the service of unity, and that the church of Rome is committed by the blood shed by Sts. Peter and Paul to serving in love the communion of all churches," Pope Leo said before praying the Angelus with those gathered in St. Peter's Square. 

"The New Testament does not conceal the errors, conflicts and sins of those whom we venerate as the greatest apostles. Their greatness was shaped by forgiveness," he said. "The risen Lord reached out to them more than once, to put them back on the right path. Jesus never calls just one time. That is why we can always hope. The Jubilee is itself a reminder of this."

In fact, "those who follow Jesus must tread the path of the beatitudes, where poverty of spirit, meekness, mercy, hunger and thirst for justice, and peace-making are often met with opposition and even persecution," he said. "Yet God's glory shines forth in his friends and continues to shape them along the way, passing from conversion to conversion."

Pallium: U.S. archbishops on healing division

Pope Leo XIV celebrated Mass for the feast of Sts. Peter and Paul June 29, 2025, and gave eight newly-appointed U.S. metropolitan archbishops palliums -- woolen bands symbolizing an archbishop's unity with the pope and his authority and responsibility...

Pro-life demonstrators take part in a rally calling for Planned Parenthood to be defunded in Denton, Texas, on Saturday, June 28, 2025. / Credit: Carole Novielli/Live Action

CNA Staff, Jun 28, 2025 / 14:00 pm (CNA).

Thousands of pro-life advocates rallied at hundreds of locations across the United States on Saturday while taking part in a “single, coordinated day of demonstration” urging Congress to defund the abortion giant Planned Parenthood.

The pro-life group Live Action spearheaded the nationwide “Defund Day” event. Group founder Lila Rose told CNA it was the “largest grassroots effort” yet to call for stripping federal funds from Planned Parenthood, which received approximately $800 million in taxpayer dollars during its most recent fiscal year.

“We’re spearheading an effort with over 200 peaceful rallies across the country in all 48 states where there are Planned Parenthoods,” she said. “This is a national call to defund the biggest abortion chain.”

Citing Planned Parenthood’s hundreds of thousands of abortions per year, as well as other extreme services such as providing cross-sex hormones to minors, Rose said: “Congress has an opportunity to defund. They need to seize it.”

Photos and videos flooded social media on Saturday showing demonstrations taking place around the country, including in states such as California, Texas, Kentucky, and Georgia, with protesters displaying signs and banners calling for Planned Parenthood to be blocked from federal funds.

Rose told CNA that pro-life advocates are “closer than ever” to defunding the abortion chain.

“We have the opportunity with the [Republican] majority in the House and the Senate, and with an administration that has indicated it would defund,” she said.

Rose said there are still “significant challenges” to the defunding goal, including the possibility of a filibuster in the Senate blocking any bill to that effect, though she noted that the budget reconciliation process could be used to bypass that obstacle.

If defunding is ultimately accomplished, Rose said, “we need to ensure that it sticks,” not just for one budget year but permanently.

Looking forward, she said, “we have to abolish abortion.”

“Defunding will weaken abortion, but the main goal is the complete legal protection for the preborn.”

“We’re building a groundswell [to abolish abortion],” she added. “It’s going to take time to develop the political infrastructure. But I believe we’ll do it within a decade.”

null / Credit: TippaPatt/Shutterstock

ACI Prensa Staff, Jun 28, 2025 / 09:00 am (CNA).

The last three popes — Benedict XVI, Francis, and Leo XIV — have on more than one occasion recommended reading “Lord of the World,” the dystopian science fiction novel written by Robert Hugh Benson in 1907.

This apocalyptic novel depicts the consequences of a society that turned its back on God and presents a social critique of the customs of the West, which has succumbed to capitalism and socialism.

Benson, an Anglican cleric who eventually converted to Catholicism and was ordained a priest in 1904, proposes a reality in which “the forces of secularist materialism, relativism, and state control triumph everywhere.”

This work, praised by the last three popes, also describes the arrival of the Antichrist as a charismatic personality but who also promotes ideals destructive to society.

Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, the future Pope Benedict XVI, cited this work during a lecture he gave at the Catholic University of Milan in February 1992, stating that the work “gives much food for thought.”

It was also one of Pope Francis’ favorite books. During his meeting with the academic and cultural world as part of his apostolic journey to Budapest, Hungary, in April 2023, Francis explained that this work “shows that mechanical complexity is not synonymous with true greatness and that in the most ostentatious exteriority is hidden the most subtle insidiousness.”

For the Argentine pope, the book was “in a certain sense prophetic.” Although it was written more than a century ago, “it describes a future dominated by technology and in which everything, in the name of progress, is standardized; everywhere a new ‘humanism’ is preached that suppresses differences, nullifying the life of peoples and abolishing religions,” he said. 

Specifically, he emphasized that in the society described in the book, all differences are eradicated, as opposing ideologies merge in a homogenization resulting in “ideological colonization — as humanity, in a world run by machines, is gradually diminished and life in society becomes sad and rarefied.”

Francis noted that in the novel, “everyone seems listless and passive, it seems obvious that the sick should be gotten rid of and euthanasia practiced, as well as national languages ​​and cultures be abolished in order to achieve a universal peace.”

This idea of ​​peace, however, “is transformed into an oppression based on the imposition of consensus, to the point of making one of the protagonists state that the world seems at the mercy of a perverse vitality, which corrupts and confuses everything,” Francis said in his address in the Hungarian capital.

Also, while criticizing ideological colonization, Pope Francis during a press conference he gave to the media on his flight back to the Vatican after his Apostolic Journey to Manila, Philippines, in 2015 recommended reading the book.

Cardinal Robert Prevost, before being elected Pope Leo XIV, also recommended the book in an interview given to the Augustinians from Rome. “It speaks about what could happen in the world if we lose faith,” Prevost explained.

He emphasized that Benson’s work contains passages that give a lot of food for thought “in terms of the world we are living in,” presenting challenges about the importance of “continuing to live with faith but also to continue to live with a deep appreciation of who we are as human beings, brothers and sisters, but understanding the relationship of ourselves with God and the love of God in our lives.”

Furthermore, the cardinal, who became Leo XIV on May 8, noted that his two predecessors had also cited this book on more than one occasion.

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

A monstrance with the Blessed Sacrament is displayed on the altar during Eucharistic adoration at a Loretto Community Pentecost event accompanied by live music. / Credit: Loretto Gemeinschaft

CNA Newsroom, Jun 28, 2025 / 08:00 am (CNA).

What began as a modest prayer meeting in a Vienna student apartment in 1987 has grown into one of Europe’s largest Catholic youth movements. The Loretto Community — named after the Marian shrine of Loreto — now draws over 12,000 participants to its annual Pentecost Festival, held simultaneously at 28 locations across four countries.

The Loretto Community traces its roots to the mid-1980s, when Georg Mayr-Melnhof, a businessman and permanent deacon from Salzburg, Austria, first visited Medjugorje, the Bosnian town known for its reported Marian apparitions.

Inspired by these spiritual experiences, Mayr-Melnhof began organizing pilgrimages for young people.

After one such pilgrimage during Easter 1987, two young Viennese approached him: “Georg, after these strong experiences here in Medjugorje, let’s start something at home.” They felt called by the Virgin Mary’s message to “found prayer circles.” That October, the first Loretto prayer group met in a Vienna apartment — just three people, a rosary, and a simple meal.

Charismatic foundations and mission

The Loretto Community identifies with the Catholic Charismatic Renewal, emphasizing a personal relationship with Jesus and openness to the Holy Spirit’s gifts. 

Its spirituality is described as Marian, charismatic, and Eucharistic, reflecting devotion to Mary, a focus on spiritual gifts, and the centrality of the Mass. The community’s vision is “to see a fresh outpouring of the Holy Spirit and a new fire in the Catholic Church,” and its mission is to create welcoming spaces where people can encounter God and deepen their faith through prayer and worship.

From its Austrian beginnings, Loretto has expanded across Europe, with over 700 members in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Italy, and the U.K. The community operates “HOME Mission Bases” in Salzburg and Vienna in Austria; in Passau, Germany; and in London — centers for prayer, formation, hospitality, and mission work. Loretto UK was founded in London in 2019 and registered as a charity the following year.

Launched in 2000 as a local youth festival at Salzburg Cathedral, the Pentecost Festival has become the movement’s flagship event. By 2018, it was attracting 10,000 young people from 28 countries with a social media reach of over 1 million. In 2022, Loretto shifted from a single large gathering to simultaneous events at multiple locations, aiming to create “Pentecostal beacons throughout the German-speaking area and beyond.”

The 2025 festival drew over 12,000 participants from Austria, Germany, Switzerland, and beyond, as CNA Deutsch, CNA’s German-language news partner, reported.

Festival activities blend traditional Catholic elements with contemporary expressions of faith: praise music, worship services, prayer moments, and opportunities for confession and spiritual growth. A signature feature is the “Evening of Mercy,” described as a time “full of God’s gentle presence” focused on confession and healing.

Loretto enjoys strong support from the Catholic hierarchy. At the 2025 Pentecost Festival, several Austrian bishops participated, including Archbishop Franz Lackner of Salzburg, who celebrated Mass and currently serves as the president of the Austrian bishops’ conference. Other bishops in attendance included Auxiliary Bishop Johannes Freitag of Graz; Bishop Hermann Glettler of Innsbruck; Bishop Alois Schwarz of Lower Austria; and “Youth Bishop” Stephan Turnovszky of Vienna. Glettler has described the festival as an “explosion of joy” and a place where “one breathes future.”

International expansion: The Loretto Project in England

Loretto UK marks a significant step in the movement’s international growth. The community’s London base offers worship services, prayer houses, discipleship programs, and hospitality events. In 2023 alone, Loretto UK organized over 165 hours of continuous prayer in its chapel.

Originally developed in Germany and Austria, the “Follow Me” program is a key export model for Loretto’s expansion. Targeted at young Catholics aged 16–30, it combines teaching, sacraments, prayer, small-group meetings, and practical applications over eight weekends in 12-16 months. All lectures are reviewed by a theological commission, underscoring the program’s orthodox Catholic orientation.

Chase Crouse, founder of Hypuro Fit. / Credit: Photo courtesy of Chase Crouse

CNA Staff, Jun 28, 2025 / 07:00 am (CNA).

In 2019, Chase Crouse was working two jobs — in ministry at the Archdiocese of New York and as a personal trainer. He quickly realized that while he loved working with people at the gym, he hated not being able to talk about Jesus with them. So he decided to combine both of his passions and create a Catholic fitness and personal training apostolate called Hypuro Fit.

Hypuro Fit’s programing is rooted in St. John Paul II’s theology of the body, encouraging its members to trade the mentality of needing to achieve the perfect “beach body” for the goal of living as a gift for others through self-discipline, self-mastery, and honoring the bodies God gave them.

After Crouse, a graduate of John Paul the Great Catholic University in San Diego who holds a master’s degree in biblical theology, began working with people as a trainer, he began to notice that anytime he asked people why they wanted to work out, their answers would always be along the lines of wanting to look a certain way and have others find them attractive. Crouse began to reflect on this and turned to John Paul II’s theology of the body.

“I read it with this question in mind and sure enough, really early on, he talks about this law of gift, from Gaudium et Spes, that man finds himself through a gift of himself, but what he adds in audience 15, which is kind of my lightbulb moment, is this idea that self-donation is impossible without self-mastery,” he explained.

In addition to being the founder of Hypuro Fit, Crouse is one of 10 coaches who work with individuals who join their programs.

The fitness apostolate offers two different options for users: one-on-one training or following a workout program through the app.

One-on-one training is done remotely through the use of Zoom and phone calls and allows the individual to work with a coach to build a custom workout plan, nutrition goals, and helps provide accountability.

The app is filled with a variety of different programs that include a library of workouts for people in every walk of life and with differing time constraints. The programs in the app also include educational content, technique tutorials, recipes, and articles for spiritual formation.

Hypuro Fit also has specialty programs such as “Breaking the Chains” for those experiencing an addiction to lust as well as a postpartum program for moms.

“What we like to say with both approaches [we offer] is that we’re authentically Catholic but we’re technically excellent, meaning that we are going to base all of our exercise routines, our nutrition protocols, based on the latest science and studies we have at our disposal,” Crouse explained. “But at the same time, we’re also authentically Catholic, meaning that for our one-on-one clients, we’re going to pray with them and for them. But then even for our subscribers in our app, we’re bringing them back to our why, which is this idea of self-mastery for self-gift.”

Crouse said the majority of the apostolate’s clients are between the ages of 30 and 60, so “they’re people in their vocation and they’re really busy.” 

Additionally, about one-third of clients are priests and religious, who receive access to the programming for free. Due to this, Hypuro Fit is aiming to show them that you don’t have to work out like you did in high school, you don’t even have to work out every day, you just need to show up and do something that is reasonable for your lifestyle.

“Ultimately we’re doing this to better give of ourselves and find that why and put everything in light of Christ and his resurrection,” he said.

Crouse added that the main goal of the ministry’s work is to help individuals “be more present and to live out their vocation to the best of their ability.”

“If we can help priests to be better priests, have more energy, give better, religious to be better brothers and sisters, husbands and wives to conquer themselves in order to give themselves to be more present — that’s the goal, that’s the dream.”

Jesus and the disciples in Season 5 of “The Chosen.” / Credit: 5&2 Studios

CNA Staff, Jun 28, 2025 / 06:00 am (CNA).

The cast of the hit series “The Chosen” was recently in Matera, Italy, filming the crucifixion of Jesus, which will be featured in Season 6. Abe Bueno-Jallad, the actor who portrays Big James, or James the Great, shared that he has “never seen the cast so focused.”

Unable to talk much about the upcoming season, he told CNA in an interview that the actors are “all there for each other right now. Everybody is carrying such a heavy burden this season as an actor.” 

“There’s just been incredible stuff happening on set. I’ve come back to set on days that I don’t work just to watch and I’ve seen stuff that gives me goosebumps,” he added.

5&2 Studios, the production company behind “The Chosen,” and Amazon MGM Studios recently made several announcements regarding future seasons of the show. 

First, the episodes of Season 6 leading up to the finale will be released exclusively on Prime Video in 2026. An official date was not given. Additionally, in a first-of-its-kind arrangement between the two production companies, the two will work together to release the Season 6 finale of the hit series as a feature film portraying the crucifixion of Jesus in theaters on May 12, 2027. 

Lastly, the premiere of Season 7 will also be made into a feature film depicting Jesus’ resurrection and will be in theaters on March 31, 2028.

Currently, viewers of the show can watch Season 5 exclusively on Prime Video before it is released for free on The Chosen app. Episodes 1 and 2 of Season 5 were released on the streaming platform on June 15; episodes 3, 4, and 5 were released on June 22; and episodes 6, 7, and 8 will be released on June 29. 

Bueno-Jallad joined the show in Season 2 after a casting change at the end of Season 1. Despite not being on the show in Season 1, he had several callbacks and kept tabs on how the production of the show was doing. 

He recalled in an interview with CNA that the cast and crew were not even sure if they would be able to get through the filming and production of Season 1, so “to know that we’re on Amazon now — that’s crazy. Amazon is so big!”

When speaking to the feature films that are going to be made, Bueno-Jallad said: “I love being a part of a company and a project that’s not afraid to kind of shake it up, stir up the water, do things differently — ‘get used to different’ has kind of always been our motto.”

For those who were unable to watch Season 5 in the theaters and are watching it for the first time as it releases on Prime Video, Bueno-Jallad shared that “everybody is kind of at this really big boiling point.”

He added: “Jesus is trying to convey to us, specifically to a few characters, that this is it — this is going to be the last time.”

The actor shared that the last five years of being on the show has “undoubtedly changed” him. 

“The research of the character and having to research the perspective, understanding that there was no New Testament at the time so, what’s my only biblical reference at that point? Going deep into this … reading as much as I can. Getting completely submerged with the idea of who were these people,” he said.

He has also come to learn several things from his character while portraying him. 

“It’s this idea of knowing when to listen without sacrificing the biggest and strongest parts of your personality, knowing how to be… I think as men, particularly… knowing how to be vulnerable without feeling like you’re less of a protector,” he shared. 

“I really tried to put that into practice in Season 5. I wanted to show the most open, grounded, vulnerable Big James who was still none the less strong and powerful,” Bueno-Jallad explained. 

“I think for men we kind of need that message these days — how to not lose ourselves or think that emotions are weakness. You’re still a protector no matter what.”

null / Credit: MIA Studio/Shutterstock

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jun 27, 2025 / 15:52 pm (CNA).

A new survey has found the majority of adults in the U.S. support allowing Christian prayer in public schools, shedding light on how Americans approach the ongoing debate surrounding religious expression in educational settings. 

According to Pew Research Center, 52% of adults support allowing public school teachers to lead their classes in prayers that refer to Jesus, with 27% saying they strongly support it and 26% saying they favor it. 

“Renewed debates are happening across the United States about the place of religion — especially Christianity — in public schools,” the report stated, citing the recent Supreme Court even-split ruling regarding Oklahoma Catholic charter schools, among other legal debates across the country. 

The June 23 report also comes just two days after Texas Gov. Greg Abbott signed a law requiring public schools there to display the Ten Commandments in every classroom at the start of the 2025-2026 school year. 

The legislation requires that a “durable poster or framed copy of the Ten Commandments” be hung in each Texas public elementary or secondary school classroom.

Pew’s report is based on data from its 2023-2024 Religious Landscape Study, which surveyed 36,908 U.S. adults from July 17, 2023, to March 4, 2024. 

Overall, 46% of American adults oppose Christian prayer in public schools, with 22% strongly opposing. While Pew’s report indicates the majority of adults support Christian prayer in public schools, it notes that support varies widely from state to state. 

The majority of adults in 22 states across the southern and Midwestern parts of the country including Mississippi, South Carolina, Oklahoma, Kentucky, South and North Dakota, Nebraska, Ohio, and Michigan said they supported the practice. 

The majority of adults in 12 states — California, Oregon, Washington, Vermont, Connecticut, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey, Minnesota, Colorado, and Illinois — and the District of Columbia said they opposed Christian prayer in public schools. 

Data in the remaining 16 states is divided, with roughly half of adults in states including Delaware, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Idaho, Arizona, and Maryland saying they favor allowing Christian prayer. 

“Once the survey’s margins of error are accounted for, support for teacher-led Christian prayer in these states is not significantly different from opposition,” the report states. 

The report also found that “a slightly larger share of Americans say they favor allowing teacher-led prayers referencing God (57%) than favor allowing teacher-led prayers specifically referencing Jesus (52%).”

null / Credit: New Africa/Shutterstock

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jun 27, 2025 / 15:22 pm (CNA).

A Texas law that requires porn sites to verify that its users are at least 18 years old can remain in effect after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled on Friday, June 27, that the law does not violate the Constitution.

In a 6-3 decision written by Justice Clarence Thomas, the court’s majority found that Texas is within its authority “to shield children from sexually explicit content” and that this authority “necessarily includes the power to require proof of age” to access pornographic material.

“Unlike a store clerk, a website operator cannot look at its visitors and estimate their ages,” the opinion continued. “Without a requirement to submit proof of age, even clearly underage minors would be able to access sexual content undetected.”

Texas is one of 24 states that has enacted age verification laws to access pornography on the internet in recent years. The ruling sets nationwide precedent for lower courts reviewing legal challenges to laws in other states.

According to Texas law, a website must verify the ages of all users if “more than one-third of [the website’s content] is sexual material harmful to minors.” The law allows parents to sue websites if their child accesses pornographic material when the website was not complying with the age verification law. The law does not permit pornographers to retain personal information after the verification is complete.

The law also imposes fines of up to $10,000 per day on websites in violation of the law and an additional $250,000 fine if a child is exposed to pornographic content because the website was not verifying the ages of its users. 

“This is a major victory for children, parents, and the ability of states to protect minors from the damaging effects of online pornography,” Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said in a statement.

“Companies have no right to expose children to pornography and must institute reasonable age verification measures,” he added. “I will continue to enforce the law against any organization that refuses to take the necessary steps to protect minors from explicit materials.”

Pornographers sued Texas in 2023 shortly after the state enacted the law, asserting that the age verification rule places a burden on adults who are trying to access pornographic material and violates their First Amendment right to access speech. The pornographers, through their trade association called the Free Speech Coalition, have been engaged in lawsuits against other states that require age verification.

In a statement on X after the ruling, Free Speech Coalition Executive Director Alison Boden called the Supreme Court’s ruling “the canary in the coal mine of free expression.” She called the decision “disastrous for Texans and for anyone who cares about freedom of speech and privacy online.”

The court was not convinced by that argument. 

In the opinion, Thomas wrote that the law “is simply to prevent minors” from accessing content — not adults. The ruling acknowledges that the law creates a burden on adults but calls the burden “incidental” and found that “adults have no First Amendment right to avoid age verification.”

“An age-verification requirement is an ordinary and appropriate means of enforcing an age limit, as is evident both from all other contexts where the law draws lines based on age and from the long, widespread, and unchallenged practice of requiring age verification for in-person sales of material that is obscene to minors,” the opinion read.

Dani Pinter, who serves as senior legal counsel for the National Center on Sexual Exploitation (NCOSE), told CNA that the free speech argument “defied common sense,” noting that identity and age verification are regular parts of most people’s lives.

Prior to states passing age verification laws, Pinter said very few pornographic websites had any type of age verification. She said “many don’t do anything at all” and some simply ask a user to “click a box that says you’re 18 or older.”

“Virtually no pornography website restricts minors,” she said.

Even in states that have adopted age verification laws, Pinter warned most websites “have not been compliant” but that some websites have “just withdrawn from the states” altogether. She said she hopes the Supreme Court’s confirmation of the constitutionality of the law will bolster compliance and lead to more states — or even the federal government — passing similar laws to protect children online.

The ruling, Pinter said, is “very historic” and “spells a new era where there is now a path forward to protect kids online.”

USCCB President Archbishop Timothy Broglio speaks at the bishops’ spring meeting, Thursday, June 13, 2024. / Credit: USCCB

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jun 27, 2025 / 13:31 pm (CNA).

As the Senate considers provisions for the “One Big Beautiful Bill” budget reconciliation, U.S bishops are asking lawmakers to protect vulnerable groups. 

“The bishops are grateful that the One Big Beautiful Bill Act includes provisions that promote the dignity of human life and support parental choice in education,” Archbishop Timothy Broglio, president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), said in a statement. 

“These are commendable provisions that are important priorities for the bishops.”

“Still, Congress must be consistent in protecting human life and dignity and make drastic changes to the bill to protect those most in need,” Broglio said. 

“As Pope Leo XIV recently stated, it is the responsibility of politicians to promote and protect the common good, including by working to overcome great wealth inequality,” he continued. “This bill does not answer this call. It takes from the poor to give to the wealthy.”

In a letter sent to senators signed by Archbishop Borys Gudziak and Bishops Robert Barron, Kevin Rhoades, Mark Seitz, David O’Connell, and Daniel Thomas, the bishops detailed their stance on certain bill provisions.

Broglio said: “I underscore what my brother bishops said in their recent letter to find a better way forward and urge senators to think and act with courage and creativity to protect human dignity for all, to uphold the common good, and to change provisions that undermine these fundamental values.”

In the letter, the bishops said they “strongly support” the bill’s plan to end “taxpayer subsidization of major abortion and ‘gender transition’ providers such as Planned Parenthood” and the bill’s support for “parental choice in education.”

The bishops also stated their agreement with “the inclusion of a $1,000 ‘above-the-line’ charitable deduction in the Senate bill” and said it is “a very positive step in the right direction.”

However, the bishops are not in support of cuts to Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). They urged senators to protect these programs, adding that “the changes to SNAP will cause millions of people to go hungry.”

The bishops also disagree with “the unprecedented increase in funding for immigration enforcement and detention,” which they said “would disproportionately impact immigrant and mixed-status families with strong ties to American communities.”

They added that cuts “to clean energy incentives and the repeal of environmental programs and energy efficient loans … will lead to increased pollution that harms children and the unborn, stifles economic opportunity, and decreases resilience against extreme weather.”

In agreement with the letter, Broglio said the bill “provides tax breaks for some while undermining the social safety net for others through major cuts to nutrition assistance and Medicaid.”

“It fails to protect families and children by promoting an enforcement-only approach to immigration and eroding access to legal protections,” he said. “It harms God’s creation and future generations through cuts to clean energy incentives and environmental programs.”

The U.S. Supreme Court on June 27, 2025, ruled Maryland parents can opt out of LGBT-themed lessons in public schools, upholding their right to the free exercise of their respective religions. / Credit: PT Hamilton/Shutterstock

CNA Staff, Jun 27, 2025 / 12:26 pm (CNA).

The Supreme Court on Friday ruled in favor of a group of Maryland parents who had sued a school district over its refusal to allow families to opt their children out of LGBT-focused lessons. 

In a 6-3 decision in Mahmoud v. Taylor, the court ruled on June 27 that the parents — who included Catholics, Orthodox, and Muslims — were “entitled to a preliminary injunction” against the Montgomery County Board of Education, one that will allow them to excuse their children from the controversial lessons while the case is remanded to lower courts for further proceedings. 

The parents “are likely to succeed on their claim that the board’s policies unconstitutionally burden their religious exercise,” the court said. 

The reading materials, the Supreme Court said — which include promotions of same-sex “marriages” — are “designed to present certain values and beliefs as things to be celebrated, and certain contrary values and beliefs as things to be rejected.”

The materials go beyond mere “exposure,” the justices said, and “burdens the parents’ right to the free exercise of religion.”

Under the district’s policy, the school board only permitted opt-outs in narrow circumstances, mostly related to sexual education in health class. It did not permit opt-outs for coursework that endorsed the views that there are more than two “genders,” that a boy can become a girl, or that homosexual marriages are moral.

Some of the coursework initially introduced in the curriculum was designed to promote these concepts to children as young as 3 years old in preschool.

One book involved in the dispute, called “Pride Puppy,” taught preschool children the alphabet with a story about a homosexual pride parade, which introduced children to words like “drag queen,” “leather,” and “zipper.”

It also introduced young children to Marsha B. Johnson, a drag queen, gay rights activist, and prostitute.

Lawyers with the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty represented the parents in their lawsuit. On Friday, Eric Baxter, vice president and senior counsel at Becket, called the ruling “a historic victory for parental rights in Maryland and across America.”

“Kids shouldn’t be forced into conversations about drag queens, pride parades, or gender transitions without their parents’ permission,” he said. “Today, the court restored common sense and made clear that parents — not government — have the final say in how their children are raised.”

In a Friday statement, meanwhile, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops hailed the Supreme Court for upholding parental rights to directing their children's educations.

"Public schools in our diverse country include families from many communities with a variety of deep-seated convictions about faith and morals," Bishop Kevin Rhoades, the chairman of the bishops' religious liberty committee, said in the statement.

"When these schools address issues that touch on these matters, they ought to respect all families," Rhoades said. "Parents do not forfeit their rights as primary educators of their children when they send their kids to public schools."

Stressing that children "should not be learning that their personal identity as male or female can be separated from their bodies," the bishop said in cases where a school teaches this ideology, "it ought to respect those who choose not to participate."

The lawsuit against the school district, located just north of Washington, D.C., was filed in May 2023. 

The Supreme Court took up the controversial case in January of this year after two lower courts ruled against a group of parents who sued the Montgomery County board over the school district’s having provided LGBT-themed lessons and reading materials to their children. 

Both the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland and the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals had ruled against the parents, claiming they had no right to be notified or opt their kids out of the sexuality-themed literature. 

The school district initially allowed the parents to opt out but changed its policy less than a year later. It removed the LGBT puppy book and another book from the program curriculum last year, though the books were still available at school libraries.

During oral arguments in April, most of the justices on the high court appeared sympathetic toward the parents in their lawsuit. 

In a dissent to the Friday ruling, Justice Sonia Sotomayor claimed the decision could usher in “chaos” for public schools around the country.

Sotomayor suggested that the LGBT materials in the dispute represented merely “a range of concepts and views” and “new ideas.”

“Requiring schools to provide advance notice and the chance to opt out of every lesson plan or story time that might implicate a parent’s religious beliefs will impose impossible administrative burdens on schools,” she alleged.

This story was updated on Friday, June 27, 2025 at 4:00 p.m. with a statement from the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.