Catholic Charities USA President Kerry Alys Robinson. / Credit: Catholic Charities USA

CNA Staff, Mar 30, 2025 / 09:02 am (CNA).

Catholic Charities USA President Kerry Alys Robinson will receive the University of Notre Dame’s 2025 Laetare Medal, the university announced on Sunday, with the school bestowing the prestigous award for her “boundless compassion” and “faith-filled service” at the helm of the national charity. 

Established in 1883 and granted annually, the school’s Laetare Medal is named after the fourth Sunday of Lent, “Laetare Sunday,” the date on which its recipient is announced. It is “the oldest and most prestigious honor given to American Catholics,” the school says. 

It is awarded to an American Catholic “whose genius has ennobled the arts and sciences, illustrated the ideals of the Church, and enriched the heritage of humanity.”

Robinson joined the national Catholic charity organization as president and chief executive officer in 2023. She previously served as the founding executive director of Leadership Roundtable, a group that brings together clergy and laity to address the Church’s abuse crisis. 

“I have always loved the Church and held its potential in the highest esteem,” Robinson said on Sunday. “The Church’s explicit religious mission has formed the person I am.”

She noted that Catholic Charities is “the largest humanitarian network in the world” and described herself as “forever committed to its health and vitality.”

The award comes as Catholic Charities affiliates in states around the country have been struggling to maintain services and retain staff amid major budget cuts by the Trump administration. 

Multiple Catholic Charities agencies have been forced to lay off workers and roll back programs amid the budget cuts. Catholic Charities Fort Worth, meanwhile, sued the federal government at the beginning of March after the Trump administration froze tens of millions of dollars in grants for refugee services in Texas. The charity subsquently dropped the lawsuit after the Trump administration began paying out its grants again. 

In January, Robinson herself called on the White House to rethink its decision to slash aid budgets, arguing that Catholic Charities agencies provide “vital services” nationwide including “food pantries for those who can’t afford groceries, child care programs for low-income families, meal deliveries for homebound seniors, job training resources for veterans,” and other programs. 

Notre Dame President Father Robert Dowd, CSC, said in a statement on Sunday that Robinson has “dedicated her career to serving the Church, standing in solidarity with those on the margins so that they may experience the abundant love of God.”

Robinson “inspires us all to dedicate our lives more fully to answering the Gospel call,” he said. 

Past recipients of the Laetare Medal include Catholic Worker founder Dorothy Day, novelist Walker Percy, actor Martin Sheen, and Civil War general William Rosecrans, the latter known in part for his execution of the Middle Tennessee campaign in 1863. 

Robinson is scheduled to receive the award at Notre Dame’s commencement ceremony on May 18. Adm. Christopher Grady, a Notre Dame alumnus and the acting chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, will give the commencement address, a choice that has stirred controversy on and off campus because of the university’s history of inviting the president or vice president to deliver the address.

The proposed restoration of the frontage of the Basilica of Sainte Anne de Détroit. / Credit: Pulte Family Charitable Foundation

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

A major U.S.-based initiative is providing tens of millions of dollars to Catholic parishes and organizations across the country to “restore and endow” Catholic communities around the country “for generations to come.”

The Pulte Family Charitable Foundation earlier this month announced the launch of the Catholic Initiative, described in a press release by the organization as “an innovative, Vatican-approved funding model” to help ensure the continuation of Catholic properties and parishes.

The unique model is “the first of its kind in the world in faith-based fundraising, one that “shifts ownership of church buildings and campuses to a newly created nonprofit organization” created solely for that purpose, the foundation said.

Kevin Doyle, the chief operating officer of the foundation, told CNA in an interview that the initiative plans to start with five projects, all of which share “some similarities” with each other. 

“We’re investing with organizations or parishes or schools where there is already a vibrant community, strong leadership, a strong ethos around the place, and where the community being served from our investment is under-resourced and underserved,” he said. 

The first major project for the initiative is the Basilica of Sainte Anne de Détroit, a historic parish in that city that dates back to the late 19th century. It is among the oldest continually operated Catholic parishes in the United States. 

Doyle said the effort will be “probably about a three-year project.” 

“One aim is to restore this historic basilica,” he said. “We’re not calling it a ‘renovation,’ we’re calling it a ‘restoration,’ to bring back to life what is already a spectacular design.”

“We’ll be restoring the stained glass, fixing the pews, and restoring and modernizing the infrastructure itself,” he said, stressing that the architectural form of the building would not be altered.

“We’re also trying to create more of a campus feel on the property,” he said. “We’re building a plaza out front of the parish and creating more of a campus alongside the basilica with green space and walkways.”

“We want this to be a place where both Catholics and the local non-Catholic community will want to come multiple times a week, and not just for Mass,” he said.

The initiative is further investing in the historic Josephinum Academy of the Sacred Heart in Chicago. Similar to the Detroit basilica, the school dates to the late 19th century; it was founded by the Sisters of Christian Charity. 

“There’s a real opportunity for the school, like St. Anne’s, to become more of a community hub,” Doyle said. 

The program is also offering an endowment for Bulldog Catholic, Father Mike Schmitz’s youth ministry at the University of Minnesota, Duluth, that offers Mass, the sacraments and fellowship to Catholic students there. Schmitz is on the initiative’s board of advisers; the ministry is “dedicated to forming and inspiring the next generation of young Catholics,” the foundation said. 

“Other projects are planned,” Doyle said, adding that the foundation will wait for further endowments before it launches any more restoration and support programs. 

He said the first wave of projects includes a mix of recipients who requested the foundation’s support as well as recipients whom the foundation reached out to. 

In the future “we will have a process and selection criteria that we utilize to prioritize which ones to support,” Doyle said, though “we are probably a couple years away from launching that.”

The foundation is further backing some innovative housing initiatives, he noted. Among them are a southern Florida housing development for residents with intellectual and developmental disabilities and an affordable rental housing development in Immokalee, Florida, for the region’s low socioeconomic population.

All told, the foundation’s housing and Catholic initiatives so far have totaled more than $100 million in commitments.

Regarding the Catholic program, Doyle said earlier this month that the initiative is working at “pioneering a new model of investing in vibrant churches, schools, and parishes in underserved communities, ensuring their long-term sustainability.” 

“This model frees religious leaders and Catholic educators from their financial burdens,” he said, “and allows them to focus on their true mission: serving their parishioners and students.”

St. Paul’s Chaldean Catholic Cathedral in Mosul, Iraq. / Credit: France Yousif

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Mar 28, 2025 / 17:35 pm (CNA).

Here are some of the major stories about the Church from around the world that you may have missed this week:

Cardinal calls on Iraqi Christians to vote for fellow Christians in upcoming elections

Cardinal Louis Raphael Sako, patriarch of the Chaldean Church, is urging Iraqi Christians to actively participate in the upcoming parliamentary elections, emphasizing the importance of updating electoral records and obtaining voter cards, ACI MENA, CNA’s Arabic-language news partner, reported. 

Sako stressed that the five parliamentary seats that are designated for Christians be confined to Christians alone to ensure accurate representation and underscored the crucial role that each individual can play in shaping Iraq’s future. 

Latin patriarch of Jerusalem promotes interfaith dialogue during historic visit to Bahrain 

Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the Latin patriarch of Jerusalem, was received as an official guest of the Kingdom of Bahrain last week, marking a historic moment for the Catholic community in the Gulf country, with whom he expressed the Holy Land Church’s “spiritual ties,” ACI MENA reported. 

The cardinal met with Archbishop Aldo Berardi, the second apostolic vicar of Northern Arabia, along with various other religious leaders, parishioners, and representatives for the King Hamad Global Center for Peaceful Coexistence. He also presided over a pontifical Mass at the Cathedral of Our Lady of Arabia, the largest Catholic church in the Arabian Peninsula.

During the homily, he emphasised the importance of coexistence, tolerance, and mutual respect in light of the various challenges facing the Middle East and called for prayers for the Christian community and harmony among religions. 

Cameroon diocese suspends ‘all forms of worship’ for chapel after Blessed Sacrament stolen

The bishop of the Diocese of Bafang in Cameroon has directed that St. Augustine Famkeu Chapel remain closed after it was desecrated and thieves stole a ciborium containing consecrated hosts and other items, ACI Africa reported. 

“This place can no longer host Christian worship until reparation has been made for this offense against God,” Bishop Abraham Kome said in a statement. “Therefore, the chapel will remain closed until further notice for the necessary time of reparation.” 

Excavation reveals further evidence of Armenian Christians in Jerusalem

Excavations this week in the Musrara neighborhood of Jerusalem uncovered four ancient Armenian inscriptions dating back to the sixth and seventh centuries, according to the Jerusalem Post. 

The inscriptions were discovered on a mosaic floor, tombstones, and a large pottery bowl. One inscription, discovered in the center of the “reception room,” is a dedication by an Armenian priest that reads: “I Ewstat the priest laid this mosaic. You who enter this house, remember me and my brother Luke to Christ.” 

Ethiopian bishop: Northern region could be ‘engulfed in a very bloody confrontation’

Bishop Tesfaselassie Medhin of the Catholic Eparchy of Adigrat in Ethiopia’s Tigray region has issued a warning of rising tensions between Ethiopia and its northern bordering neighbor, Eritrea, ACI Africa reported. 

“Instability in our region continues to persist, tensions between Ethiopia and Eritrea are increasing, and the country could be engulfed in a very bloody confrontation. God forbid that the factions involved start a new war in Tigray, which has already suffered enormously,” the bishop said Tuesday in a statement to Agenzia Fides. He noted that political instability and violence in the region, coupled with the “sudden interruption of USAID funding, is severely penalizing millions of people.” 

Pakistan court sentences 5 men to death for alleged ‘online blasphemy’ 

A court in Pakistan has sentenced five men — four Pakistani nationals and one Afghan — to death on Tuesday for allegedly violating the Muslim-majority country’s blasphemy laws online, according to an AFP report on March 26. A representative for the legal group that brought the case forward told AFP that “all five accused were sentenced to death for spreading blasphemous content against the holy prophet.”

The five accused have each been sentenced to life imprisonment for allegedly desecrating the Quran and 10 years for “hurting religious sentiments.” The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom recommended Pakistan be designated as a country of particular concern in its latest annual global watch report earlier this week.

The Kansas Capitol in Topeka. / Credit: Nils Huenerfuerst/Wikipedia| CC BY 4.0

CNA Staff, Mar 28, 2025 / 17:05 pm (CNA).

The organizer of a “black mass” that took place outside the Kansas state Capitol on Friday amid heavy Catholic protest was arrested shortly afterward in the Capitol building after punching a protester in the face. 

A video from local news outlet WIBW shows Michael Stewart raising his arms and chanting in the Capitol rotunda, surrounded by a number of protesters urging him to stop. A young man later identified as Marcus Schroeder attempted to snatch what appeared to be papers from Stewart’s outstretched hands. 

Video and images circulating on social media show Stewart punching Schroeder twice in the face before a half-dozen police officers tackled him and led him away.  

Upon reaching the Capitol building’s doors, law enforcement had greeted Stewart and told him he was welcome to enter but could not hold a demonstration. Gov. Laura Kelly had previously banned all protesters from entering the building. 

Stewart had publicly announced on numerous occasions his intention to defy Kelly’s order and enter the Capitol rotunda, saying in a recent Facebook live video that he intended to enter the building and “read prayers.” 

According to the Kansas Reflector, after the area cleared, two other Satanists tried to pick up where Stewart left off and were taken into custody. 

It’s not yet clear what charges, if any, will be brought against members of the Satanist group. 

During the “mass” on the Capitol steps prior to the altercation inside the building, a protester attempted to throw himself on the unconsecrated “crackers” that Stewart was stomping on as part of the Satanic ritual. Stewart pummelled the man with his fists, and law enforcement took the man away, the Reflector reported.  

Catholic leaders in the state, while deploring the planned sacriligious “black mass” — which is designed to protest and mock the Catholic Mass — had called for peaceful and prayerful resistance. 

At the center of the Catholic reaction, Archbishop Joseph Naumann of Kansas City, Kansas, led a session of Eucharistic adoration and Mass at a Catholic church directly opposite the Capitol. According to the Reflector, “as many as 400 people” showed up for the Mass at Assumption Church.  

Naumann, who settled a lawsuit earlier this month after the Satanic group testified under oath that it did not steal a consecrated host, had urged the faithful not to “succumb to anger and violence, as that would be cooperating with the devil.”

A large crowd of several hundred counterprotestors, primarily organized by the Catholic group the American Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family, and Property, gathered on the south side of the Capitol to pray the rosary and demonstrate in defense of the Catholic faith. 

Meanwhile, “about 20 people” showed up in support of the “black mass,” WIBW reported. 

Credit: Ivanko80/Shutterstock

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Mar 28, 2025 / 16:45 pm (CNA).

A public official in Ulster County, New York, is refusing to cooperate with a ruling from a Texas judge ordering a doctor to pay a $113,000 fine for allegedly mailing abortion pills into the southern state. 

Acting County Clerk Taylor Bruck will not file the summary judgment ordered against abortion doctor Margaret Daley Carpenter for allegedly providing abortion pills to women in Texas via mail, a violation of the state’s laws.

The order was issued by Collin County, Texas, District Court Judge Bryan Gantt against Carpenter, a cofounder of the Abortion Coalition for Telemedicine Access (ACT).

This is the first case, in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade, in which a court official in one state refused to cooperate with a judicial ruling from another state on a matter related to interstate abortion services.

Under Texas law, both surgical and chemical abortions are illegal in most circumstances and it is expressly illegal to supply abortion drugs to a person through the mail. The initial complaint against Carpenter, issued by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, also noted that she is not licensed to practice medicine in Texas.

However, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul signed a bill in 2023 that prohibits New York courts from cooperating with abortion-related court orders from out-of-state judges in pro-life states. The New York “Shield Law” is designed to create a “safe haven” for abortionists.

“I hold my responsibilities and the oath I have taken in the highest regard,” Bruck said in a statement after refusing to file the summary judgment.

“In accordance with the New York state shield law, I have refused this filing and will refuse any similar filings that may come to our office,” he continued. “Since this decision is likely to result in further litigation, I must refrain from discussing specific details about the situation.”

Paxton issued a statement on X chastising the county clerk for blocking the summary judgment. 

“I am outraged that New York would refuse to allow Texas to pursue enforcement of a civil judgment against a radical abortionist illegally peddling dangerous drugs across state lines,” Paxton wrote. 

“New York is shredding the Constitution to hide lawbreakers from justice, and it must end,” he added. “I will not stop my efforts to enforce Texas’ pro-life laws that protect our unborn children and mothers.”

Gantt, who was appointed to the district court in Texas by Republican Gov. Greg Abbott in 2024, issued the ruling against Carpenter after she failed to appear at a court hearing in February. The order also prohibits her from mailing abortion pills into the state in the future.

According to Paxton’s lawsuit against Carpenter, the abortionist prescribed abortion drugs to a Texas woman after seeing the patient virtually via a telehealth appointment. The alleged drugs killed the unborn child and caused severe bleeding for the woman, which required her to seek medical attention at a hospital.

Carpenter is a co-medical director and cofounder of ACT, which advertises on its website that it makes abortion available “in all 50 states” and specifically offers “telemedicine care for patients in abortion-hostile states.” The organization supplies women with abortion pills up to the 12th week of pregnancy.

ACT was formed in 2022 in response to lawmakers in some states enacting pro-life laws after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.

In February, Carpenter was also indicted by a Louisiana grand jury for allegedly supplying abortion drugs to a minor in that state, in violation of state law. Hochul said at the time that the doctor would not be extradited to Louisiana, citing New York’s shield law.roba

“People need genuine compassion and choices, not the false choice of pain or poison,” says Jim Towey, founder and president of Aging with Dignity, the organization behind a new watchdog effort to monitor and oppose the expansion of assisted suicide throughout the United States. / Credit: “The World Over with Raymond Arroyo”/EWTN News screenshot

CNA Staff, Mar 28, 2025 / 16:15 pm (CNA).

A new watchdog effort has launched to monitor and oppose the expansion of assisted suicide throughout the United States. 

Aging with Dignity, a nonprofit group inspired by St. Teresa of Calcutta that provides guidance on end-of-life issues, on Thursday debuted Assisted Suicide Watch, which the group said will “challenge the well-funded effort to convince people that suicide-affirming care is a social good.”

Jim Towey, the founder and CEO of Aging with Dignity, previously served as legal counsel to Mother Teresa. He told CNA last year that he launched the nonprofit “to give people a hopeful vision for end of life that helps them practice their faith and that doesn’t treat dying like it’s just a medical moment.”

The organization has widely distributed its “Five Wishes” legal document, an advance directive that helps Catholics and others establish their wishes for care ahead of a serious illness. Last year it rolled out a new resource, “Finishing Life Faithfully,” a booklet that helps Catholics address end-of-life decisions in line with Church teaching. 

Assisted Suicide Watch, meanwhile, is meant to research and analyze “the consequences of suicide-affirming care,” the organization says.

“If we adopt suicide as a social norm, then we remove any motivation to try and correct the increasing rate of suicide in the country because it is no longer a problem worth fixing but rather a ‘solution’ worth celebrating and promoting,” the initiative points out. 

The new watchdog effort is already tracking the growing rate at which assisted suicide is claiming lives in the U.S. It says more than 2,300 Americans died from the practice in 2023, while more than 1,000 lethal prescriptions remain unaccounted for in the country.

Aging with Dignity said the watchdog will “track, expose, and oppose state and national efforts to expand physician-assisted suicide and euthanasia.”

Towey in a press release said the group “fully support[s] patient self-determination.” But, he said, “killing yourself or forcing doctors to participate is not the answer” because “it cheapens human dignity.”

“Physicians are healers, not executioners,” he said. “People need genuine compassion and choices, not the false choice of pain or poison.”

In addition to the United States, assisted suicide has been on the upswing in other parts of the world, including in Canada, where the country’s national “medical aid in dying” program accounted for nearly 1 in 20 deaths in the country in 2023.

Aging with Dignity said assisted suicide is the fifth-leading cause of death in Canada, with more than 96% of suicide requests granted. 

The group said that in order to counter assisted suicide it promotes “best practices in palliative care,” including pain management, timely hospital services, and spiritual and emotional support.

“If America’s health care system routinely offered such humane services,” Towey said, “public support for the legalization of euthanasia and assisted suicide would nearly vanish.”

Maryland State House. / Credit: Jon Bilous/Shutterstock

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Mar 28, 2025 / 14:25 pm (CNA).

The Catholic Church in Maryland is urging the state Legislature to treat cases of child sexual abuse in state-run facilities equal to those in private institutions following a proposed bill that would “decrease the number of civil causes of action for child sexual abuse filed against the state.”

The Maryland Catholic Conference (MCC) said in a statement on Thursday that the bill “greatly exacerbates an existing difference in treatment for victims abused in state institutions and those abused in private institutions.”

If passed, the bill would reduce the state damage cap for abuse victims to $400,000 while keeping the cap for private organizations at $1.5 million.

The “overtly unequal treatment in HB 1378 is not only poor policy for victim-survivors but also unfairly targets nonprofit and religious organizations that have long served children in this state and have implemented strong safeguards for youth protection,” the Maryland bishops said.

The bill is sponsored by state Del. C.T. Wilson, who spearheaded the Maryland Child Victims Act of 2023, which abolished the statute of limitations on lawsuits against public and private entities involved in incidents of sexual abuse. That bill resulted in increased claims against the state.

“The Child Victims Act uncovered a terrible truth,” the Maryland bishops said. “The largest employer of abusers in the state of Maryland appears to be the state of Maryland itself.”

The MCC statement said the reports of abuse within state-led institutions, including Maryland’s Department of Juvenile Services, are mainly from young men and women of color who are the majority of youth placed under the state’s care. 

The bishops called the harm done to them “heartbreaking.”

“As a Church that has faced its own painful reckoning,” the statement said, “we urge state leaders to be accountable and transparent.”

The statement calls for specific actions to be done by state leaders to ensure “abuse by state employees never happens again.”

The Church further instructs the government to “seek opportunities for an independent assessment to gain further insight into the history of abuse in state settings” as well as “implement reforms such as stringent safeguarding policies” and “provide survivor-centered support for those who suffered abuse by state representatives.”

But there is “no principled basis for treating victims of child sexual abuse in state institutions differently from those who suffered abuse in private institutions,” the conference said.

The Philippines has the highest adult Christian faith retention rate in the world, according to Pew Research. / Credit: icosha/Shutterstock

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Mar 28, 2025 / 12:45 pm (CNA).

Surveys in about three dozen countries compiled by the Pew Research Center found that most Christians who are raised in the faith hold onto it in adulthood. In fact, in every country surveyed the majority of people who are raised Christian still remain in the faith as adults.

However, the numbers vary widely, from a high of 99% Christian faith retention in the Philippines and 98% in Hungary and Nigeria to lows of 51% in South Korea and 53% in the Netherlands.

The United States was slightly lower than the average from the countries included in the research. About 73% of Americans who are raised Christian as children have kept the faith in their adult lives.

Pew’s data includes numbers from 10 European countries, 10 east and South Asian countries, eight countries in the Americas, five African countries, two west Asian countries, and one country in Oceania.

The broader report on religious retention rates included surveys from 36 countries, which polled nearly 40,000 Americans and slightly more than 40,000 people from other countries. However, the report only measured the Christian retention rate in 27 of those countries — the ones that had substantial Christian populations.

Based on the report, African and Eastern European countries surveyed had some of the highest retention rates for Christianity. Some of the lowest retention rates were in Western Europe, Canada, and Australia. 

Ghana, Kenya, Poland, and Sri Lanka all had retention rates between 92% and 97%. Peru had a retention rate of 89% and Greece was at 87%. Brazil, Mexico, and South Africa all had retention rates at 81%. Argentina’s retention rate was 80%.

Countries with Christian faith retention rates between 72% and 79% included Colombia, Singapore, Italy, the United States, and Chile. 

The following countries had retention rates between 57% and 61%: Canada, Germany, Spain, France, the United Kingdom, Australia, and Sweden.

A large majority of the people in these countries who abandoned the Christian faith no longer identify with any religion at all. Only a small percentage switched to a different religion.

Numbers of those who fall away outpace incoming converts 

The surveys also reveal that in most countries the number of adults who have fallen away from the faith is substantially higher than the number of adults in those countries who convert to Christianity.

Some of the biggest losses for the faith are happening in European countries, with six countries on the continent surveyed seeing more than 11 adults leave the faith for every one who converts to it. This trend is also prevalent, yet less pronounced, in the United States and other countries in North and South America.

Pew’s surveys only measure the number of people who adhere to a different religious faith than the one with which they grew up. It does not measure broader national shifts in religious beliefs that are caused by other factors, such as immigration and birth rates.

The only countries that had more adult conversions to the faith than departures were Singapore, Sri Lanka, Hungary, Ghana, and the Philippines. Nigeria had a 1:1 ratio. 

Assessing these numbers, Jimmy Akin, a senior apologist at Catholic Answers, told CNA that the Pew compilation is “not representative of global trends” as it only includes five African countries on a continent where “Christianity has been growing dramatically.” He also pointed out that “the Gospel is making progress in Muslim countries and in the communist world,” most of which are not included in these surveys and frequently undercounted due to repressive laws.

In the United States, about 73% of people who were raised Christian as children still identify as Christians as adults. However, about 23% no longer identify with any religion and another 4% identify with a non-Christian faith, which means 27% no longer call themselves Christian.

On top of this, conversion rates to Christianity in the country are quite low as a percentage. The surveys found that about 94% of current Christians were raised in the faith. Only about 4% of people who call themselves Christian were raised without any faith and just 2% were raised in a non-Christian household of a separate faith.

Multiple factors contribute to the religious makeup of a country. In spite of the net loss through “religious switching,” a separate Pew survey from May 2024 found that — in raw numbers — the percentage of Americans who identify as nonreligious has stabilized in recent years after a major surge in nonreligious identity through the 1990s and 2010s.

The data does not establish distinctions between Catholicism, Orthodoxy, or Protestantism. It does not categorize a change in Christian faith tradition or community as “religious switching.” 

For Catholicism specifically, data published by the Vatican earlier this month shows continued growth in the number of people in the world who are Catholic. According to the data, the total number of Catholics globally surpassed 1.4 billion people in 2023.

null / Credit: sebra/Shutterstock

CNA Staff, Mar 28, 2025 / 11:00 am (CNA).

A Texas Catholic charity group that sued the federal government this month over budget cuts says it will drop its lawsuit as payments from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) resume. 

Catholic Charities Fort Worth sued the agency at the beginning of March after the Trump administration froze tens of millions of dollars in grants for refugee services in Texas. 

Earlier this month the government said it was conducting a “program integrity review” of the Catholic charity. Last week the government said it had paid out more than $47 million to the charity after completing the review. 

In a “joint status report” filed earlier this week, the charity and the government said HHS has made continuous payments to the Catholic group since March 17 following the conclusion of the review. 

“As a result of [the government’s] representations and action, [the Catholic charity] will move to dismiss this case on or before April 2, 2025,” the filing said. 

The document noted that the charity would only dismiss the lawsuit so long as the group’s funding requests “continue to be paid in the normal course up until that date.”

The lawsuit’s pending dismissal will bring to an end just one of several suits filed in the wake of the major budget and funding cuts the Trump administration has enacted since January. The White House said the cuts were meant to bring federal policy and spending in line with the administration’s agenda.

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) sued the Trump administration in February over what the bishops said was an unlawful suspension of funding for refugee programs in the United States.

The State Department earlier this month canceled two multimillion-dollar refugee resettlement contracts with the USCCB, directing the bishops to “stop all work on the program[s] and not incur any new costs” and “cancel as many outstanding obligations as possible.” The bishops’ lawsuit is still playing out in federal court. 

Several other groups have sued the government over the funding freezes, arguing that the White House engaged in an overreach of its executive power in ending the large amounts of federal payouts.

Lawsuits have also been filed over other Trump White House policies. Multiple religious groups last month sued the administration over its policy allowing immigration officers to arrest suspected illegal immigrants in houses of worship and other “sensitive locations.”

Catholic actor Jonathan Roumie, known for his role as Jesus Christ in “The Chosen,” speaks with CNA during a press junket interview on March 19, 2025, in Dallas at the Season 5 premiere of “The Chosen: Last Supper.” / Credit: EWTN screenshot/Francesca Fenton/CNA

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

Season 5 of the hit series “The Chosen” has officially been released in theaters across the country.

“The Chosen: Last Supper” focuses on the events of Holy Week, starting with Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem and ending with Judas’ betrayal in the Garden of Gethsamene. 

Part 1 of Season 5 was released in theaters on March 28, with Part 2 coming on April 4 and Part 3 on April 11. 

Actor Jonathan Roumie, who portrays Jesus in the series, shared about his experience portraying historic events such as the Last Supper and the washing of the feet, especially as a Catholic who celebrates these moments every year during the Triduum.

“For me, it was living out liturgy,” he told CNA in a March 19 press junket interview at the premiere of Season 5 in Dallas. “I try to best replicate a level of authenticity for those scenes based on my experience of the liturgy.”

Speaking about these beautiful moments in salvation history, he said: “It’s going to be stunningly beautiful for people to see. And we sort of present it in a very unique way, but in a way that is super powerful.” 

He added: “I hope it lands the way it felt when we did it because there were moments where many of us were just kind of like wiping away the tears from our eyes right after the scene, or during the scene. It’s really truly beautiful.” 

The release of the new season comes during Lent, culminating in the Triduum and the celebration of Easter. Roumie hopes that Season 5 will provide viewers  “a more vibrant and saturated experience of Holy Week, a more vivid experience of Holy Week, that they can see and feel.” 

Roumie explained that during this time where we are reading about these important moments of Holy Week in Mass each week, viewers will now get to see “a full production of what this moment looked like. I don’t know if anybody has ever covered it in the detail that we have and I think for me it was so important to bring everything that I had to it, especially as a Catholic.”

The actor shared that he even flew his spiritual director out to be with him as they shot the Last Supper and the Garden of Gethsamene. 

“I just wanted to be armed with as much spiritual firepower as possible,” he said. “He’s a priest so he said Mass for me that day. I felt prayed up, put it that way, before entering into the scene.”

Roumie is now preparing himself for another incredibly important scene — the Crucifixion, which will be shown in Season 6. 

The actor shared that he recently received the script and while Roumie has been traveling, he has been trying to read “different source material” regarding the Passion.

He has also been studying the Shroud of Turin in order to learn more about “the crucifixion techniques and what Jesus actually would’ve went through.”

“Learning from the markings on that shroud, what the crucifixion physically looked like and what I now have to prepare for mentally and spiritually to recreate — I’m not looking forward to it, but I’m confident that the Lord will bring me through it one way or another, and hopefully I’ll continue to learn more and fall deeper in love with Jesus as a result.”