Northwoods Catholic Churches -- St. Anne, Boulder Junction; St. Mary, Sayner; St. Rita, Presque Isle

Ryan Bethea (left) and Father Carlos Martins (right), co-hosts of “The Exorcist Files” podcast. / Credit: The Exorcist Files

CNA Staff, Jul 30, 2025 / 13:09 pm (CNA).

The popular podcasting priest Father Carlos Martins is no longer facing criminal charges after an incident at an Illinois parish last year led to misdemeanor allegations. 

The Burke Law Group said in a Wednesday press release that the priest, who hosts “The Exorcist Files” podcast, had been “fully cleared of all charges” stemming from a Nov. 21, 2024, event held at Queen of Apostles Parish in Joliet, Illinois.

Attorney Marcella Burke told CNA in November that the disputed incident occurred when Martins touched a young girl’s hair while telling a joke about his own baldness. The joke occurred publicly “in a classroom setting with teachers, clergy, parish staff, and volunteers present.”

The incident led to Will County prosecutors filing a criminal complaint against Martins in January, one that alleged that Martins went so far as to place the girl’s hair in his mouth.

On Wednesday the Burke Law Group said that prosecutors “withdrew those charges and dismissed the case” without any finding of any wrongdoing or criminal liability on the part of the priest.

Burke on Wednesday told CNA the charge carried a maximum penalty of 365 days in jail and a $2,500 fine.

In the press release the attorney said the dismissal of the charges was “exactly the result we were expecting.”

“What he was charged with was simply absurd,” Burke said. “This was a case that never should have been brought forward. The court’s ruling is a full vindication of Father Martins’ innocence from the beginning of any and all criminal wrongdoing.”

Martins, meanwhile, said in the release that he was “deeply grateful to all who offered their prayers and support during this time.” 

“I am thankful for the truth coming to light and look forward to resuming my ministry and continuing to preach the Gospel,” the priest said. 

Martins is a priest of the Companions of the Cross order. The order had not yet released a statement on the case by Wednesday afternoon. 

Martins was visiting the Illinois parish as part of his national touring exhibit of a relic of the arm of St. Jude the Apostle via the ministry Treasures of the Church. 

The priest told EWTN News in 2023 that it was “the first time the arm of the saint … [had] left Italy.”

On its website Treasures of the Church says the 16-month-long tour was attended by “almost 2 million pilgrims” while visiting numerous dioceses and locations.

A wall with the image of “The Virgin Everywhere.” / Credit: Photo courtesy of “The Virgin Everywhere” project

Puebla, Mexico, Jul 30, 2025 / 11:55 am (CNA).

The “The Virgin Everywhere” project, which seeks to bring images of Our Lady of Guadalupe to every corner of the world, has completed its latest challenge: covering the entire perimeter of Mexico.

The accomplishment was announced this month by Alejandro Olivares on TikTok. “Everything ends where it begins. We are in Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua state, at St. Lawrence Church. We just finished Mass. We are giving thanks because we started here to place images of the Virgin on the border, and today we finished.”

“There are already images from Tijuana to Matamoros [west to east on the northern border],” he said. “We traveled many kilometers to place the Virgin everywhere, and today we finished. But we didn’t just finish the border, we finished the entire perimeter of this great country.”

“The Virgin Everywhere” began during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 in Monterrey, Nuevo León state on the border with the U.S. as a joint initiative between Olivares and a friend, Juan García Gaeta.

Five years later, “we’ve already reached 120 countries,” Olivares told ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. Among other countries far from Mexico, he noted, “there’s already one in Zambia, one in New Zealand, more than three in Australia, five in Iceland, etc.”

Outside of Mexico, he estimates there are “about a thousand” images of Our Lady of Guadalupe, out of a total of 52,000 they’ve produced over the past five years. The rest are “within Mexico.” All the “The Virgin Everywhere” locations around the world can be seen on this map.

In this challenge alone, covering the perimeter of Mexico with images of the Virgin, they used around 1,700.

How to get one

Since its inception, the project’s mechanics have remained the same: someone purchases an image through the website www.lavirgenentodoslados.com and takes it home. With that money, the team finds a suitable wall on a street and with permission stencils a similar image. 

To hold up outdoors, the images are imprinted on the chosen surface by spraying electrostatic paint over a metal stencil. 

The durability of the images was put to the test by the recent wildfires in California. In June, the project shared a series of photos on Instagram “of a friend who lost his house in one of the California fires.”

“They told him the temperature reached over 1,200 degrees Celsius [about 2,200 degrees Fahrenheit],” the post continues, adding: “Even so, an image of #lavirgenentodoslados was recovered, and a clay statue of Our Lady of Guadalupe that was on a shelf fell to the floor and the colors were changed.”

‘Many people cry with emotion’ 

Olivares shared how, over the years, he’s seen the impact of taking the image of the Virgin “everywhere.”

People’s reactions are often “one of surprise, of gratitude ... we’ve had many people cry with emotion,” he said. “Yes, it’s been something that no one expects, and they say, ‘You know what, you made my day.’”

He also shared a very personal story about the impact that “The Virgin Everywhere” has left in a neighborhood called “Infonavit La Huasteca,” an area marked by violence. There, encouraged by Father Humberto Noel Lozano, then-pastor of the Christ the Worker Parish in the area, they managed to put images of the Blessed Virgin Mary on more than 50 walls.

When the priest was finally going to be transferred to another parish, Olivares said, “the municipality thanked him because they’re no longer killing people, there’s no more violence, and there are no more drugs.”

“So you say: Yes, it changes the social fabric; I mean, it works ... it’s worth putting her everywhere, right?”

‘A miracle’

For Olivares, the growth of this project can be summed up as “a miracle.”

“When we started, only one friend was cutting out images of the Virgin, and little by little, people have joined without even looking for them. Right now, there are seven companies making images of the Virgin for free.”

“Free metal, free paint, free cutting, who does that? ... Is it because I’m so good-looking? I don’t think so; it’s because of the Virgin,” he assured.

“The other day, a man told me: ‘Hey Alex, I want to give you metal, I love your project, I want to give you 20 tons of metal. Do you know how much 20 tons of metal is? That’s way over the top. That’s two overloaded trailers,” he noted.

And the reach of “The Virgin Everywhere” continues to surprise him. “The other day, a friend went to Machu Picchu [in Cusco, Peru] and said, ‘Hey, in a little lunch shop here in Machu Picchu, I found the ‘Virgin Everywhere.’ And I said, ‘Well, she’s everywhere.’”

Stories like these, from almost all over the planet, make Olivares see “the Virgin’s action clearly.”

The next challenge

With this challenge complete, there’s another one: the plan is to take the Virgin Mary “to all the inhabited islands of Mexico,” which total 85.

“We’ve only done seven,” he said, while figuring out how he’ll take the Virgin to several more islands on his upcoming trips. And it won’t end there. Afterward, he continued, “let’s see what the Virgin and the Holy Spirit say.” It could include completing Latin America, starting either in Guatemala (right below Mexico) going from north to south, or from Tierra del Fuego (the southern tip of South America) going from south to north.

For now, with the help of Opus Dei Tips, young Catholic women from Monterrey who are currently in Rome for the Jubilee of Digital Missionaries and Catholic Influencers, have traveled with images of “The Virgin Everywhere” that will be distributed throughout the Eternal City.

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

Bishop Robert Barron of Winona-Rochester, Minnesota, speaks with “EWTN News Nightly” on March 4, 2025. / Credit: “EWTN News Nightly”/Screenshot

CNA Newsroom, Jul 30, 2025 / 09:45 am (CNA).

Bishop Stefan Oster of Passau in Bavaria delivered a spirited defense of American Bishop Robert Barron while sharply condemning what he called “beige Catholicism” in Germany on Sunday. 

The defense came as Barron received the Josef Pieper Prize in Münster on July 27 amid fierce protests from Catholic groups and political organizations.

Critics accused the American prelate of promoting “exclusionary identity politics” and cooperating with networks that “ideologically support autocratic political forces,” reported CNA Deutsch, CNA’s German-language news partner.

Protesters — including the local Green Party, a diocesan lay association, and the Catholic youth organization BDKJ — staged a public vigil Sunday, citing concerns over Barron’s alleged support for U.S. President Donald Trump and anti-LGBTQ+ positions.

The Catholic-Theological Faculty at the University of Münster added its concerns, expressing “bewilderment” at the award choice.

Oster tackled the protests in his laudatio.

“When I hear how some voices in our country try to reflexively defame [Barron] as right-wing or as a supporter of Trump, such a categorization, which usually happens very quickly, tells us much more about the person making the judgment and often enough about the Church system and its media processes in our country than about the person being judged,” Oster said.

The bishop offered a broader critique of contemporary Catholicism in Germany, which he suggested has risked abandoning magisterial teaching in favor of cultural accommodation. 

He described a phenomenon where “many in our Church have largely left behind binding doctrinal positions” on fundamental anthropological questions and sacramental theology.

Oster warned particularly against what Barron terms “beige Catholicism.” The Bavarian prelate described this as “a phenomenon in which the prevailing culture dominates the faith and adapts it to itself” without faith transforming culture in return.

This, he said, results in “a mostly well-financed Catholicism of appeasement” in Germany, which “has essentially lost its spiritual power and attraction.”

Oster said that much of the German criticism stemmed from discomfort with authentic evangelization. “New evangelization has no easy standing in our specifically German form of church,” he observed.

“Many find it annoying or suspicious. But because ‘new evangelization’ is at the heart of Bishop Barron’s faithful commitment, it seems almost inevitable to his critics that he must somehow come from the right-wing corner.”

Oster predicted a future reckoning: “In the foreseeable future, many more people will ask themselves: How can it be that Bishop Barron has such a reach in our country and has long been one of the beacons of hope for renewal among many young people in our country? How can that be, even though he is so loyal to the magisterium?”

The Josef Pieper Foundation noted Barron’s “unmistakable affinity for Pieper’s philosophy of religion” and his work to restore “an insight-supported access to the unabridged Catholic confession of faith” in contemporary missionary situations.

Barron, who has over 6 million followers across social media platforms and has received nine honorary doctorates, is the founder of the Word on Fire ministry, which reaches millions globally through digital evangelization efforts. 

His signature exhortation is to not “dumb down the faith.”

The Josef Pieper Prize honors the legacy of the German Catholic philosopher (1904–1997), who was renowned for his accessible writings on Thomistic philosophy and his insights into leisure, contemplation, and the relationship between faith and reason.

Monsignor Fernando Ocáriz, prelate of Opus Dei. / Credit: Opus Dei Communication Office

Buenos Aires, Argentina, Jul 30, 2025 / 08:00 am (CNA).

Opus Dei has denounced the “manipulation of judicial proceedings to create a media and public opinion case” in the lawsuit advanced by former assistant numeraries in Argentina, which now seeks to implicate the highest authorities of the organization in alleged human trafficking.

The case was formally filed in court in 2024, but media coverage began years earlier. According to the lawsuit, Opus Dei authorities allegedly recruited women while they were still minors and subjected them to a regime of semi-slavery in their residences.

The conflict began as a labor complaint and then progressed into a lawsuit for compensation for damages, eventually leading to allegations of alleged labor exploitation. As of June 2023, a judicial investigation has been underway following a complaint alleging that a group of women were victims of human trafficking and labor exploitation.

The Argentine prosecutor’s office has requested an investigation into the last four regional vicars of Opus Dei in Argentina, including the current auxiliary vicar of Opus Dei and the organization’s second in command, Monsignor Mariano Fazio. The plaintiff’s lawyer is calling on prosecutors to also request a statement from the prelate of Opus Dei, Monsignor Fernando Ocáriz.

However, the prelature has pointed out that the presiding judge has not yet charged any crimes, ruled on whether to grant the request, or named those whom he might summon.

Opus Dei issued a statement to clarify that the judicial investigation is based on the personal situation of one woman when she was part of the apostolate and that within this context, the plaintiff’s lawyer “announced in the media that he has requested the prosecutors’ office that Monsignor Fernando Ocariz, the prelate of Opus Dei, be summoned for questioning.”

The prelature believes this request has no factual or legal basis but is part of “a deceptive and sustained media strategy that, from the beginning, has attempted to distort the purposes of a criminal investigation to address a labor compensation claim.”

“The case as a whole represents an attempt at manipulation by introducing the charge of a committing a criminal offense (human trafficking) that actually has no connection with the facts described by the complainants themselves, much less with the reality of Opus Dei,” the apostolate pointed out.

Opus Dei asserts that the request to summon Ocáriz for questioning is an attempt to “artificially extend the scope of the criminal investigation to include people whose direct connection to the alleged events described by the complainant is nonexistent,” with the purpose of “amplifying the impact on public opinion and exerting pressure on the justice system.”

The apostolate also pointed out that something similar happened “with the request that Monsignor Mariano Fazio be summoned to testify, which was announced with an orchestrated media blitz.”

The conflict, the statement adds, reflects a “complete decontextualization of the freely chosen vocation of the assistant numerary of Opus Dei.”

The prelature regretted “that judicial mechanisms are being used to sustain a prefabricated narrative that seeks to establish blame without any basis in the facts that actually occurred” and called for respect for the presumption of innocence.

Opus Dei therefore reiterated that it rejects “these allegations” and maintains its “complete willingness to cooperate with the judicial authorities, trusting that the truth will prevail.”

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

Journalism students have traveled from across the globe to Rome to take part in the fourth annual EWTN Summer Academy from July 21–31, 2025. / Credit: “EWTN News Nightly”/Screenshot

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jul 30, 2025 / 07:00 am (CNA).

This week, Pope Leo XIV welcomed journalism students to Rome who have traveled from across the globe to take part in the fourth annual EWTN Summer Academy.

The 40 students joined thousands of others gathered for the Jubilee of Digital Missionaries and the Jubilee of Youth. On Sunday, Pope Leo said to the young crowds: “I greet the faithful from Kearny, New Jersey; the Catholic Music Award group; and the EWTN Summer Academy.”

The Summer Academy attendees will collaborate on stories and work in teams to produce, shoot, and edit videos over the 10-day course. The goal is that after the training, networking, and prayer, the students will have the skills to go out and be digital missionaries in an age where so much of what people learn and consume is online.

While the students are from 20 different countries and come from various backgrounds in journalism, they are united by the same mission.

One student told “EWTN News Nightly” in Rome: “I was very amazed that we’re all here for the same reason, to work for God and do what we can in this world to spread the truth … It’s very humbling to know that we’re all here connected together, fighting for what is right.”

“We do everything for the Church and ultimately for the evangelization to bring people closer to God,” another student added. “So when you step outside of yourself and you say, ‘It’s not about me, it’s about God,’ you can do almost anything.”

Other young journalists taking part in the July 21–31 summer course are Charbel and Giovanni Lteif, Lebanese twin brothers who have been creating content on social media about Christianity in the Eastern region.

The brothers have built their Christian platform in just one year, expanding across multiple social media outlets to reach global audiences. The success of their digital work earned them acceptance into the academy.

In Rome, Charbel told EWTN that Generation Z is “coming to Christ in big numbers, and that’s very beautiful to see. And people miss tradition. They miss a sense of belonging, a sense of not scrolling all day.”

Giovanni added: “And I think that people, when they see the faith in the East, they get excited and motivated. ‘If they have that strong faith in the East, I want to have it here too.’ So it’s like connecting the entire world … in our faith.”

While working with the 40 students from a number of different nations, Giovanni said: “It was the first time in my life I saw how global our Church is. And I saw that no matter where you are on earth, if you have good Christian values, we’re the same … This is how we change the world; 40 people or 12 disciples, change the world.”

During the closing Mass for the Jubilee of Digital Missionaries, Pope Leo said to the digital creators: “It is not simply a matter of generating content but of creating an encounter of hearts. This will entail seeking out those who suffer, those who need to know the Lord, so that they may heal their wounds, get back on their feet, and find meaning in their lives.”

Father Charles-Michel de l’Épée founded the National Institute for Deaf Youth of Paris in 1760. / Credit: Public domain

CNA Staff, Jul 30, 2025 / 06:00 am (CNA).

Sign language is currently one of the most popular families of languages in the world, with National Geographic estimating more than 300 forms of sign language used by more than 70 million people worldwide.

Yet most people, and even most users of sign language, may be unaware of the notable role that Catholics played in the earliest years of modern sign language, including the founding of the world’s first free school for deaf people.

That school, the National Institute for Deaf Youth of Paris, was founded in 1760 by Father Charles-Michel de l’Épée. The institute says on its website that the priest was inspired to develop a system of sign language after meeting two deaf twins. He would go on to launch a small school on the rue des Moulins in Paris that would in time become the national institution. 

Jordan Eickman, a professor of Deaf studies at California State University, Northridge, told CNA the Catholic contribution to Deaf history and Deaf education is “significant.”

“Catholic priests and nuns founded or ran several of the earliest schools and later on, others founded around the world,” he said. “Some taught using sign language, others taught using the oral method.”

With a life of “relative ease” due to a generous inheritance, l’Épée did not seek compensation for his efforts. He organized “public exercises” for his students, generating a considerable amount of interest in Deaf education. 

Though sign languages had existed in various forms for centuries, l’Épée’s contribution to Deaf history is notable for his development of what he called a “universal language” by “constructing natural signs into a method.”

In the decades after the priest’s death in 1789, the institute expanded, being led by l’Épée’s fellow priest Father Roch-Ambroise Cucurron Sicard. The revolutionary National Assembly would go on to recognize l’Épée as a “benefactor of humanity.” 

Though the Church can boast of a notable history in early Deaf education, Eickman said Catholic leaders can still do more to make the faith accessible to those who are deaf.

The Church “can increase its accessibility to Deaf people worldwide by providing direct access through local sign languages,” he said. 

This will “prevent language deprivation within Deaf education and provide Deaf people access to religious knowledge and ministry.”

At the parish level this is “best done through a Deaf priest fluent in the local signed language,” the professor said. 

“Protestant denominations have a far higher number of Deaf priests and lay leaders compared to the Catholic Church and any other religion,” he noted. “Increasing the number of Deaf priests is one way to provide accessibility and more effective ministry.”

Some leaders have already taken steps to shore up gaps in that ministry. In Maryland earlier this year, for instance, hundreds of Deaf Catholics gathered for the first-ever Eucharistic Congress for the Catholic Deaf community. The event was organized by Father Mike Depcik, one of just a few Deaf priests in the world. 

In Washington, D.C., meanwhile, the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception has begun offering specialized guided tours for deaf and blind visitors, giving immersive and sensory experiences to make the sacred site more accessible.

Writing in 1776 and reflecting on the apparent rise in deaf children throughout France, l’Épée said that number appeared to be growing “because until [the present day], children who were born deprived of the faculties of hearing and speaking were kept away from the world, because their intrusion had always been very difficult and somewhat impossible.”

Though being deaf was for centuries considered “only a dreadful situation” and a “misfortune without remedy,” l’Épée attributed such beliefs to “prejudice.” 

“This is not a question of [folly],” the priest wrote; rather, “it is a matter of doing everything we can to make ourselves useful to [those who are deaf] of today and tomorrow.”

Left to right: Cathleen Davey, president, Holy Name Foundation; Jeffrey A. Brown, acting commissioner for the New Jersey Department of Health; Joan Noble, Douglas M. Noble Family Foundation; Michael Maron, president and CEO of Holy Name Medical Center; U.S. Rep. Nellie Pou; New Jersey state Sen. Paul A. Sarlo; and New Jersey state Sen. Joseph A. Lagana. / Credit: Holy Name

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jul 29, 2025 / 17:29 pm (CNA).

Holy Name Medical Center, the only independent Catholic health system in New Jersey, announced it has received a $75 million gift, the largest-ever donation to a U.S.-based Catholic health system. 

“This transformational gift is not just about its remarkable size; it’s about the profound impact it will have on Holy Name’s ability to tackle some of the most critical health care challenges facing our community in the decades to come,” the hospital’s president and CEO, Michael Maron, said in a press release on Monday in which he announced the sizable donation from the Douglas M. Noble Family Foundation.

Holy Name Medical Center, located in Teaneck, New Jersey, hosted a special event to celebrate the gift and honor the legacy of the late Dr. Doug Noble, an accomplished neuroradiologist who passed away in 2019. His mother, Joan Noble, made the donation to the hospital on its 100th anniversary in honor of her son.

“My son was a very special person. Not only to me, as his mother, but also to the people in his world of medicine. Doug was an intelligent, dynamic individual sharing so much — energetically and with integrity and love,” Noble said at the event. “It became clear to me in order to make Doug’s legacy endure beyond any one individual’s or organization’s memory, including my own, I needed to give the gift that was Doug’s to a place that would appreciate it — and him; one that would turn his compassionate vision into reality in a way that he would endorse.”

“It was a challenging journey,” she added, “but through Father Roy Regaspi and prayer, I was blessed to be introduced to the people and mission of Holy Name. It is here at Holy Name where I found Doug’s legacy would live on.”

“In deciding where to bestow the funds of the Douglas M. Noble Family Foundation, the fact that Holy Name is a faith-based Catholic health organization entered strongly into Joan Noble’s decision,” Cathleen Davey, president of the Holy Name Foundation, told CNA. “Mrs. Noble told us she had prayed on the question for some time and that her prayers were answered with Holy Name.”

“Doug was a person of faith, and we learned that his desire to emulate Jesus as a healer was something very close to his heart,” Davey said. “Where could these funds promote the kind of medical competence and compassionate care that Doug himself delivered? Where could young physicians be trained as Doug himself taught — not only in the knowledge and skills of doctoring but in the concept of servant leadership?”

“So in getting to know Holy Name, it became apparent to Mrs. Noble that ours was the kind of health system Doug would have appreciated and endorsed,” Davey continued.

The historic gift will be used to expand the hospital’s specialized care units, according to Maron, including the hospital’s Level III neonatal intensive care unit as well as a new neuroendovascular institute.

The funds will also help launch the hospital’s graduate medical education program to help counter ongoing physician shortages.

“The potential impact is limitless — enhancing patient care, fueling medical innovation, attracting the best physician talent, and allowing us to continuously grow and adapt in line with our core values of compassion and healing,” Maron said.

New Jersey Democrat state Sen. Paul Sarlo, who is Catholic, also attended the event.

“Congratulations to Holy Name and God bless the Noble Family Foundation for this donation,” Sarlo said at the event, adding: “This does not happen in a vacuum. This family doesn’t make this contribution to any institution. It made it to Holy Name because when you walk into this place you feel like you belong. You are rooted in that Catholic mission. This gift is a compliment to each and every individual in this hospital. The work you do, day in and day out, ensures folks receive the care they need with gifts like this.”

U.S. Rep. Nellie Pou and state Sens. Joseph Lagana and Gordon Johnson were also present.

Notre Dame Catholic Church in Kerrville, Texas. / Credit: Sophie Abuzeid

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jul 29, 2025 / 16:59 pm (CNA).

A coalition of Protestant denominations filed a lawsuit on July 28 to challenge a policy from U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration that makes it easier for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents to arrest suspects at churches and other sensitive locations.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in January rescinded the previous administration’s guidelines that had prevented ICE agents from conducting immigration arrests at churches and other sensitive locations unless there is approval from a supervisor or there is an urgent need to take enforcement action, such as an imminent threat.

The lawsuit brought by the Protestant coalition argues that the change in policy violates the First Amendment’s right to the free exercise of religion and two federal laws: the Religious Freedom Restoration Act and the Administrative Procedure Act.

Churches suing the administration over the policy include several synods of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America along with Quaker churches, Baptist churches, and community churches. The nonprofit Democracy Forward is serving as co-counsel in the lawsuit.

“Raids in churches and sacred spaces violate decades of norms in both Democratic and Republican administrations, core constitutional protections, and basic human decency,” Democracy Forward President and CEO Skye Perryman said in a statement.

“Faith communities should not have to choose between their spiritual commitments and the safety of their congregants,” Perryman said. “Democracy Forward is honored to be alongside these religious leaders in court. We will not give up until this unlawful and dangerous policy is struck down.”

Under the current rules, the formerly “sensitive” locations — such as churches, other houses of worship, schools, hospitals, shelters, and playgrounds — do not receive the special protections they had under the previous administration.

Yet a memo from DHS at the time instructed ICE agents to still maintain discretion and “balance a variety of interests” including the degree to which enforcement actions should be taken in one of those locations. It tells agents to use “a healthy dose of common sense.”

DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin countered the lawsuit’s narrative in a statement provided to CNA, saying that any enforcement in houses of worship would be “extremely rare.”

“Our officers use discretion,” she said. “Officers would need secondary supervisor approval before any action can be taken in locations such as a church or a school.”

The lawsuit contends it is not enough that the discretion is “guided only by ‘common sense’” and said the policy “does not require any internal process before agents may carry out enforcement at these locations” and “does not require that exigent circumstances exist before agents enter.”

Effects of the DHS policy change

The lawsuit alleges that the policy change causes people to “reasonably fear attending houses of worship” and that some churches represented in the lawsuit “have seen both attendance and financial giving plummet.” It states that this impugns the free exercise of religion and argues that the new policy is not the least restrictive way to further the government’s interest of immigration enforcement.

“Congregations whose faith compels them to worship with open doors and open arms have suddenly had to lock those doors and train their staff how to respond to immigration raids,” the lawsuit contests. “In many places of faith across the United States, the open joy and spiritual restoration of communal worship has been replaced by isolation, concealment, and fear.”

Similar concerns have also been raised by Catholic dioceses. For example, the Diocese of San Bernardino, California, issued a Sunday Mass dispensation for those fearing deportation. Los Angeles Archbishop José Gómez said people are missing Mass amid such fears.

The lawsuit further states that the administration’s policy change has also “led to a growing number of immigration enforcement actions at or near these formerly protected areas.”

Although there are no allegations of targeted raids in churches, the lawsuit cites examples of immigration arrests on or near church properties.

It references two arrests in the San Bernardino Diocese: one in which men were chased into a church parking lot and another in which a man was doing landscaping work. It also references two arrests near churches in Los Angeles and the arrest of a man near a church in Oregon.

“The present threat of surveillance, interrogation, or arrest at their houses of worship means, among other things, fewer congregants participating in communal worship; a diminished ability to provide or participate in religious ministries; and interference with their ability to fulfill their religious mandates, including their obligations to welcome all comers to worship and not to put any person in harm’s way,” the lawsuit states.

McLaughlin, however, disputed these claims, saying that the policy change “gives our law enforcement the ability to do their jobs.”

“We are protecting our schools [and] places of worship by preventing criminal aliens and gang members from exploiting these locations and taking safe haven there because these criminals knew law enforcement couldn’t go inside under the Biden administration,” she said.

Other religious groups have brought similar lawsuits against the DHS following the policy shift.

Pope Leo XIV blesses Elizabeth Busby and her baby on the way at the Mass for Digital Missionaries on July 29, 2025, at St. Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican. A family and marriage therapist, Busby hosts the “Discerning Marriage” podcast and developed the Next Step formation program for people who are discerning marriage. / Credit: Vatican Media

ACI Prensa Staff, Jul 29, 2025 / 16:29 pm (CNA).

Pope Leo XIV on Tuesday participated in the Mass celebrated in St. Peter’s Basilica on the occasion of the Jubilee of Digital Missionaries and Catholic Influencers, encouraging them to create encounters “between hearts” regardless of the number of followers they have.

The Holy Father arrived at the Vatican basilica at the end of the Mass, which was celebrated by Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle, pro-prefect of the Dicastery for Evangelization.

More than a thousand Catholics from different countries participated in the event, which also coincided with the Jubilee of Youth, filling the basilica with young and enthusiastic faces.

In his address — delivered in Italian, English, and Spanish — Pope Leo XIV shared three missions or challenges when it comes to evangelizing online:

1. Proclaim peace to the world.

For Pope Leo, peace “needs to be sought, proclaimed, and shared everywhere; both in places where we see the tragedy of war and in the empty hearts of those who have lost any meaning of life and the desire for introspection and the spiritual life.”

Leo emphasized that “today more than ever, we need missionary disciples who convey the gift of the risen Lord to the world” and who give voice to the hope that the living Jesus gives us “to the ends of the earth” and to “the farthest reaches, where there is no hope.” 

2. Seek the “suffering flesh of Christ” in those one encounters.

The Holy Father asked Catholic influencers to always seek “the suffering flesh of Christ” in every brother or sister they encounter online.

In the context of a new culture shaped by technology, he appealed to the responsibility of digital missionaries to ensure that culture “remains human.”

“Nothing that comes from man and his creativity should be used to undermine the dignity of others. Our mission — your mission — is to nurture a culture of Christian humanism and to do so together. This is the beauty of the ‘internet’ for all of us,” the pope stated.

Faced with cultural changes throughout history, the pope emphasized that “the Church has never remained passive; she has always sought to illuminate every age with the light and hope of Christ by discerning good from evil and what was good from what needed to be changed, transformed, and purified.”

Given the challenge of artificial intelligence, the Holy Father emphasized that we must reflect on the authenticity of our witness, “on our ability to listen and speak, and on our capacity to understand and to be understood.  We have a duty to work together to develop a way of thinking, to develop a language, of our time, that gives voice to love,” he noted.

“It is not simply a matter of generating content but of creating an encounter of hearts. This will entail seeking out those who suffer, those who need to know the Lord, so that they may heal their wounds, get back on their feet, and find meaning in their lives,” the pontiff added.

To achieve this, he advised “accepting our own poverty, letting go of all pretense and recognizing our own inherent need for the Gospel. And this process is a communal endeavor.”

3. Go and mend the nets.

Just as Jesus called his first apostles while they were mending their fishing nets, Pope Leo XIV said that “he also asks this of us.”

The pope noted that “he asks the same of us today. Indeed, he asks us to weave other nets: networks of relationships, of love, of gratuitous sharing where friendship is profound and authentic.”

“Networks where we can mend what has been broken, heal from loneliness, not focus on the number of followers but experience the greatness of infinite love in every encounter,” he counseled.

In short, the pontiff encouraged the missionaries and influencers to create “networks that give space to others more than to ourselves, where no ‘bubble’ can silence the voices of the weakest; networks that liberate and save; networks that help us rediscover the beauty of looking into each other’s eyes; networks of truth. In this way, every story of shared goodness will be a knot in a single, immense network: the network of networks, the network of God.”

He also invited them to be “agents of communion” and to avoid individualism. Finally, he thanked them for their commitment and for the help they offer to those suffering, and “for your journey along the virtual highways.”

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

Canon law professor Edward Peters had taught at Sacred Heart Major Seminary in Detroit since 2005. / Credit: Photo courtesy of CanonLaw.info

National Catholic Register, Jul 29, 2025 / 15:59 pm (CNA).

Canon law professor Edward Peters is the third faculty member at Detroit’s seminary to announce that he has been fired by Archbishop Edward Weisenburger in recent days.

Peters, 68, had taught at Sacred Heart Major Seminary since 2005.

“My Sacred Heart Major Seminary teaching contract was terminated by Abp. Weisenburger this week. I have retained counsel,” Peters wrote in a social media post Friday night.

“Except to offer my prayers for those affected by this news and to ask for theirs in return, I have no further comment at this time,” Peters said.

A representative of the Archdiocese of Detroit declined to comment Monday, telling the National Catholic Register, CNA’s sister news partner, by email on Monday that “the Archdiocese of Detroit does not comment on archdiocesan or seminary personnel matters.”

Peters is an adviser to the Apostolic Signatura, which is the Holy See’s highest administrative tribunal. He was appointed by Pope Benedict XVI to that position in May 2010, “becoming the first layman so appointed since the reconstitution of Signatura over 100 years ago,” according to an online biography.

Peters earned a doctorate in canon law from The Catholic University of America in 1991.

He published an English translation of the 1917 Code of Canon Law in 2001 and a textual history of the 1983 Code of Canon Law in 2005.

Two theologians — Ralph Martin, 82, and Eduardo Echeverria, 74 — were fired from Detroit’s seminary on July 23, they told the Register last week.

Martin told the Register the firing was “a shock” and that he didn’t get a full explanation for it.

“When I asked him for an explanation, he said he didn’t think it would be helpful to give any specifics but mentioned something about having concerns about my theological perspectives,” Martin said in a written statement, as the Register reported last week.

One thing all three now-former faculty members have in common is that they criticized Pope Francis publicly during the late pope’s pontificate.

In Peters’ case, he chided Pope Francis in his canon law blog, called “In Light of the Law.”

In April 2016, he described what he called “writing flaws” in Pope Francis’ encyclical Amoris Laetitia, keying in on Francis’ interest in allowing divorced and civilly remarried Catholics “in certain cases” to have “the help of the sacraments,” including the Eucharist.

Peters wrote that the encyclical makes what he called “a serious misuse of a conciliar teaching” of Vatican II when it conflates the periodic abstinence from sexual intercourse that a married couple may make with what he called “the angst” that “public adulterers experience when they cease engaging in illicit sexual intercourse.”

In August 2018, Peters criticized Pope Francis’ statements condemning the death penalty, referring to what he called “serious magisterial issues that I think Francis’ novel formulation has engendered” and saying he had “grave concerns” about Pope Francis’ “alteration” of the Catechism of the Catholic Church on that issue.

Weisenburger, who was installed March 18 as archbishop of Detroit after serving as bishop of Tucson, Arizona, for a little more than seven years, is an admirer of Pope Francis, as he made clear during a press conference on April 21, the day Pope Francis died. The archbishop called Francis “the perfect man at the right time” and suggested he was “a saint,” as the Register reported last week.

This story was first published by the National Catholic Register, CNA’s sister news partner, and has been adapted by CNA.