Widows who are members of the Widows of Prayer gather together in community in various parts of the country. The group is headquartered in the Diocese of Green Bay, Wisconsin, and has grown since its founding in 1994 from five widows to 60, with eight candidates currently in discernment. / Credit: Photo courtesy of Widows of Prayer

CNA Staff, Dec 22, 2024 / 07:00 am (CNA).

After Cecilia Cortes-Peck lost both her husband and her son, she wanted to dedicate her life to something. She felt called to devote her life to prayer by making promises to the “Ordo Viduarum,” or Order of Widows — and to not remarry. 

But there was one small problem. There was no group of widowed women where she lived in Ohio for her to join. So, Cortes-Peck appealed to the bishop in a letter in 2022 and in October, the Diocese of Columbus, Ohio, approved the establishment of an Order of Widows, which is not a religious order or an association but a special group similar to the Order of Virgins.

Cortes-Peck is now one of six widows in formation as part of the newly established group.

The newly-formed order in Columbus is not the only group of faithful widows in the U.S., however. Carlotta Stricker, assistant servant leader for the Widows of Prayer, spoke with CNA about the daily life of a Widow of Prayer.

The Widows of Prayer is based in the Diocese of Green Bay, Wisconsin, has grown since its founding in 1994. It began with five widows and has since grown to 60, with eight candidates in discernment. The apostolate remembers in their prayers an additional 83 members who have passed away.

Daily life as a Widow of Prayer

“As a Widow of Prayer, we live our lives with God as our focus,” Stricker explained. “Responsibilities include: daily Mass, Eucharist, rosary, adoration, Liturgy of the Hours (morning and evening), and Divine Mercy Chaplet. All other forms of prayers and spiritual reading are encouraged. We find that most of the widows coming to us are already practicing these prayerful activities.”

The widows don’t live in community the way many Catholic religious sisters and brothers do.

“Most of our widows live in their own homes — some in nursing homes — but no matter the age or health, we are able to pray,” Stricker said. “We have some widows who still have a job. In spite of our promise and vows, we are still mothers, grandmothers, and great-grandmothers and still have an active role in our families lives.”

The Widows of Prayer has hubs in various dioceses as well as “remote” members of the community. Once there are three or more members in an area, they can become a new community.

“For those Widows of Prayer who have a community close to them, they are able to [gather] in person,” Stricker explained. “For those Widows of Prayer who are remote, they join meetings and prayer sessions via Zoom. We are fortunate that this can be done because of the age and health of our widows.”

“This allows us to feel connected and part of the whole apostolate; we are truly sisters in Christ Jesus!” she added.

Stricker explained that the Widows of Prayer takes inspiration from Mary.

“We call Our Blessed Mother the first Widow of Prayer,” she said. “Vatican archives do not indicate who started the Order of Widows, but it is assumed that it was Our Blessed Mother who was herself a widow and the only one to receive instruction in the Temple as a child. She has asked humanity to pray for her son’s priests and his Church.”

Stricker feels that her vocation honors both God and her late husband.

“It is a privilege to dedicate the remainder of our lives to God!” she said. “I also feel that I am honoring my husband and my marriage by doing this. I chose not to remarry and focus on heaven, and every day is a blessing!”

Becoming a Widow of Prayer

Those interested in becoming a Widow of Prayer go through a process of formation and promises over several years. 

“For those Catholic widows who are looking for a religious life, they begin their first year of formation and discernment once their application has been approved and accepted,” Stricker explained. “At the end of the first year they are invited to profess their first promise. A year later they make their second promise and the third is their final and permanent promise.” 

The third promise includes a profession of private vows of consecration: simplicity, chastity, and obedience, Stricker explained. Widows of Prayer members make their promises after the homily at a Mass with the assistance of the priest and the general servant leader of the Widows of Prayer. 

“Our foundress, Mary Reardon, WP, was hoping for approval of the name Order of Widows, which was listed in the Vatican archives and was established while Jesus was on earth,” Stricker said. “Aside from the name difference, we function as the same order by dedicating our lives to Our Lord and his Church, in which we pray for priests, Church leaders, the Catholic Church. These prayers include seminarians and deacons.”

Stricker said the “formation and building” of the apostolate is challenging and “takes great time and work.” Reardon developed statutes, bylaws, and formation materials that were later approved by the bishop. 

“Now we have the ability to have religious communities throughout the world with the approval of the bishop in that diocese,” Stricker noted. 

Catholic actor David Henrie and his wife, Maria, with children during their mission trip to Guatemala with Cross Catholic Outreach. / Credit: Benjamin Rusnak

CNA Staff, Dec 21, 2024 / 15:00 pm (CNA).

Cross Catholic Outreach’s Box of Joy ministry has officially reached its 10th anniversary and marked the occasion with a trip by Catholic actor David Henrie to Guatemala to deliver boxes to children there.

Henrie, who serves as brand ambassador for the nonprofit, flew to Guatemala with his wife, Maria, to hand-deliver the “Boxes of Joy” to children living in extreme poverty.

Founded in 2001, Cross Catholic Outreach is a Vatican-endorsed nonprofit that works to provide aid, such as food, medicine, and shelter, to those suffering from poverty in more than 90 countries. It has also recently been named by Forbes as one of America’s Top 100 charities, ranking at No. 42 on the list.

The organization’s Box of Joy ministry began in 2014. The boxes are given at Christmas to children in need, many of whom have never received a Christmas gift before. The boxes are filled with toys, clothing, school supplies, a rosary, and a booklet in the language of the children telling the story of Jesus.

Two years ago, Henrie — best known for his role as Justin Russo in the Disney series “Wizards of Waverly Place” — teamed up with Cross Catholic Outreach and its Box of Joy ministry. 

“It had been on my heart to try to align with a Catholic charity, but I wanted to be very selective and find something that could appeal to my fanbase, because there’s millions of people who follow me and a lot of them have very diverse backgrounds and not necessarily the same faith, so I wanted to work with a charity whose mission is just universal and broadly appealing and authentically Catholic,” he told CNA in an interview.

He added that it has been a “true honor” working specifically with the Box of Joy ministry and helping bring more awareness to that cause. 

From Nov. 19–22, Henrie and his wife visited the Diocese of Santa Rosa de Lima in Guatemala, which faces extreme poverty with many struggling to provide the basics of food and clean water to their families. Henrie called the experience a “perspective check,” especially for his wife, who had never visited a developing country. He said the experience taught them lessons they are now implementing in their own home with their children, such as simplicity and humility.

The couple was very impressed with “how much these people do with so little and also with how strong family values are in their community.”

Henrie recalled that when many of the kids received their gift, they would instantly turn to their sibling and give it to them. 

“It’s almost like they didn’t even think of themselves,” he said. “Or if they got a piece of candy or something, they would turn to their sibling and give it to their sibling or they would come right back to me and go, ‘Do you want to split this?’”

“That culture is just very beautiful and giving and charitable and you see it all over the place there.”

While there, the Henries met a mother and her children who had just been given a home by Cross Catholic Outreach. Prior to being given a home, the family only had one bed they slept on and when it rained they would pull a big plastic blanket over their bed to protect themselves from the rain. The family was filled with joy as they took Henrie around their 250-square-foot home made of a concrete floor, cinder blocks, and a tin roof. 

“They took us in their home that was just built and the joy in these people’s faces — they were so grateful and they felt so wealthy,” he shared. “And it was such a reality check for me and for my wife … I think a lot of Americans root their happiness and achievements or success in tangible items. That’s not where happiness really is. This is the happiest family on earth and they’re happy that they just have a floor that rain doesn’t get in.”

Henrie added that the trip left an impact on him personally by making him think about “where happiness is really rooted.”

“I saw it in these people and I saw it in what they had — where is happiness rooted — and it’s not rooted in material things, it’s rooted in ultimately your relationship with God and your character, your virtue ... It really isn’t dependent upon your external circumstances, it’s entirely dependent on your internal circumstances.”

Speaking to the importance of giving back, especially as Catholics, Henrie said: “Well, if you take the Bible seriously, then there’s a lot of mention of helping the poor in the Bible.”

“I think one of the beautiful things about the Catholic faith is it is the most charitable organization on the planet and always has been since its inception,” he added. “So, why is that? I think fundamentally it’s because Catholics recognize human dignity as something sacred and they see the human person as something infinitely valuable.”

He also highlighted the “unicity” of the Catholic Church.

“One, holy, Catholic, apostolic — unicity. We are all one,” he explained. “So all of the members of the Church need to be healthy and we need to help those who aren’t to help the body function in a more powerful way and healthy way.”

Vandalism at a Heartbeat of Miami pregnancy center in Hialeah, Florida, July 3, 2022. / Credit: Heartbeat of Miami

CNA Staff, Dec 20, 2024 / 17:30 pm (CNA).

A Florida woman was convicted on Thursday for conspiracy targeting pro-life pregnancy resource centers, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced on Friday. 

Gabriella Oropesa was convicted “for her role in a conspiracy to injure, oppress, threaten, or intimidate employees of pro-life pregnancy help centers in the free exercise of the right to provide and seek to provide reproductive health services,” read the Dec. 20 DOJ press release. 

Oropesa was convicted under the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act, which has been used in the past to allegedly target pro-life activists for blocking clinic entrances. The FACE Act prohibits “violent, threatening, damaging, and obstructive conduct intended to injure, intimidate, or interfere with the right to seek, obtain, or provide reproductive health services.” 

Many pro-life activists have been sentenced under the FACE Act in recent years, including several elderly people, a young mother, and a Catholic priest. House Republican lawmakers discussed repealing the FACE Act earlier this week after hearing testimony alleging the law has been weaponized against pro-life protesters.

Oropesa and three co-conspirators had vandalized pregnancy health centers that provided alternatives to abortion with threatening messages. Caleb Freestone, Amber Stewart-Smith, and Annarella Rivera previously pleaded guilty for their involvement.

The four had vandalized a series of pro-life pregnancy help centers in Florida, spray-painting threatening messages such as “If abortions aren’t safe than niether [sic] are you,” “YOUR TIME IS UP!!”, “WE’RE COMING for U,” and “We are everywhere.” 

“The Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act is clear: No one should have to face threats and intimidation just for doing their job,” Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division said in a statement. 

“The Justice Department will continue to ensure access to the full spectrum of reproductive health services afforded to the public, whether those services include abortion or counseling on alternatives to abortion,” Clarke continued. 

U.S. Attorney Roger Handberg for the Middle District of Florida reiterated that reproductive health clinic access is protected by federal law.  

“Federal law protects providers who render reproductive health care and those who seek their services,” Handberg said in a statement. “Threats of violence against pregnancy resource centers or those exercising their rights to care will not be tolerated.”

A sentence hearing is scheduled for March 19, 2025. Oropesa will face a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison for the conspiracy charge, according to the DOJ. 

The case involved investigation from the FBI’s Tampa field office as well as local police departments.  

At one pregnancy center in Hialeah, Florida, Heartbeat of Miami, the vandalism resulted in thousands of dollars in damages. The Archdiocese of Miami’s Hollywood pregnancy center and the South Broward Pregnancy Help Center, located just north of Miami, were also targeted. At South Broward, the words “Jane’s revenge” and an anarchist symbol were also graffitied on the property.

President-elect Donald Trump announced on Dec. 20,2024 that he has chosen CatholicVote president, Brian Burch, to be his ambassador to the Holy See. / Credit: Photo courtesy of CRC Advisors

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Dec 20, 2024 / 15:05 pm (CNA).

President-elect Donald Trump selected CatholicVote president and co-founder Brian Burch to serve as the United States ambassador to the Holy See, he announced on Truth Social Friday afternoon.

“Brian is a devout Catholic, a father of nine, and president of CatholicVote,” Trump wrote in the Dec. 20 post. “He has received numerous awards and demonstrated exceptional leadership, helping build one of the largest Catholic advocacy groups in the country.”

CatholicVote is a political advocacy group that endorsed Trump in January and ran advertisements in support the president-elect during his campaign. According to CatholicVote, the organization spent over $10 million on the 2024 elections.

Some of CatholicVote’s ads, running in key swing states, accused Vice President Kamala Harris of supporting taxpayer-funded transgender surgeries for minors.

“[Burch] represented me well during the last election, having garnered more Catholic votes than any presidential candidate in history!” Trump wrote. “Brian loves his Church and the United States — he will make us all proud. Congratulations to Brian, his wife, Sara, and their incredible family!”

According to a Washington Post exit poll, Trump won the Catholic vote by a 15-point margin this year — a 10-point swing in his favor from the previous election. Exit polls also showed Trump winning the majority of Catholic voters in vital swing states.

Burch wrote in a post on X that he is “deeply honored and humbled to have been nominated” for the position.

“The Catholic Church is the largest and most important religious institution in the world, and its relationship to the United States is of vital importance,” he wrote. “I am committed to working with leaders inside the Vatican and the new administration to promote the dignity of all people and the common good.”

Burch wrote that he looks forward to “the opportunity to continue to serve my country and the Church.” He thanked his colleagues and his family, including his father, “who passed to eternal life this past June, who taught me to love the Church and the blessings and responsibilities of being a citizen of the U.S.”

“To God be the glory,” Burch wrote.

Burch, who lives in the Chicago suburbs, is a graduate of the University of Dallas, a private Catholic school. In 2020, he wrote a book called “A New Catholic Moment: Donald Trump and the Politics of the Common Good.” 

According to his biography on CatholicVote, Burch has received the Cardinal O’Connor Defender of the Faith Award from Legatus International and the St. Thomas More Award for Catholic Citizenship by Catholic Citizens of Illinois.

As ambassador, Burch will represent the United States in diplomatic relations with the Holy See. The United States first established formal diplomatic relations with the Holy See in 1984, under the presidency of Ronald Reagan.

During Trump’s first term, he selected Callista Gingrich — the president of Gingrich Productions, wife of former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, and a Catholic — to serve as ambassador. She stepped down in 2021. President Joe Biden selected former Sen. Joe Donnelly, who is Catholic, as ambassador to the Holy See during his term. He stepped down earlier this year.

Pope Francis with Archbishop Blase Cupich of Chicago on Sept. 2, 2015. / Credit: Vatican Media

Vatican City, Dec 20, 2024 / 14:35 pm (CNA).

Pope Francis has appointed five new auxiliary bishops for the Archdiocese of Chicago and assigned each bishop-elect a titular see in the Middle East and North Africa region, Cardinal Christophe Pierre, apostolic nuncio to the United States, announced Dec. 20.

Archbishop of Chicago Cardinal Blase Cupich expressed his gratitude to the Holy Father on Friday for the appointments of bishops-elect Father Timothy J. O’Malley, Father Lawrence J. Sullivan, Father José Maria Garcia Maldonado, Father Robert Fedek, and Father John S. Siemianowski.

“These fine archdiocesan priests reflect the people of this particular Church and the many talents of our local presbyterate,” Cupich shared in a Dec. 20 news release.

“Each has a solid and notable record of pastoral service rooted in their shared fidelity to the Gospel and their generosity in using their unique gifts for the good of the Church and society,” he added.

While each of the five bishops-elect will “remain in their present assignments for the time being,” according to the Archdiocese of Chicago release, the Vatican’s announcement states Pope Francis has also assigned each a titular see outside of the U.S.

To titular sees in Algeria, the Holy Father appointed O’Malley, parish priest of Most Blessed Trinity in Waukegan, Illinois, to the see of Numida; Sullivan, parish priest of Christ the King in Chicago, to the see of Lambhua; Maldonado, parish priest of San José Sanchez del Rio in Chicago, to the see of Fallaba; and Siemianowski, parish priest of St. Juliana in Chicago, to the see of Gratianopolis.

The Holy Father assigned Fedek, personal secretary to Cupich in the Chicago Archdiocese, the titular see of Dardano in Turkey. The last titular bishop of Dardano was Bishop Nicolas Coëffeteau, OP, who held the seat over 400 years ago from 1617–1621.

All five bishops-elect attended Mundelein Seminary in Illinois before being assigned to parishes in the Chicago Archdiocese. 

The episcopal ordination of the five bishops-elect will take place at Chicago’s Holy Name Cathedral in early 2025.

Bishop Gregory Kelly. / Credit: Scott Wagner Photo LLC, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

CNA Staff, Dec 20, 2024 / 12:45 pm (CNA).

Pope Francis has appointed a new bishop to lead the Diocese of Tyler, Texas, more than a year after the Holy See removed its Bishop Joseph Strickland amid questions over management of the diocese. 

Dallas Auxiliary Bishop J. Gregory Kelly will lead the Tyler Diocese, apostolic nuncio Cardinal Christophe Pierre said on Friday. 

He will take over diocesan leadership from Austin Bishop Joe Vásquez, who has served as apostolic administrator in Tyler since last year. 

Pope Francis relieved Strickland from the Tyler bishopric last November after an apostolic visitation concluded it was “not feasible” for Strickland to remain in that position. Strickland had days earlier refused to submit his resignation voluntarily.

Strickland, 65, had served as bishop of Tyler since 2012. The widely popular though polarizing Texas bishop had faced criticism for his firebrand social media posts, including a tweet last year that suggested Pope Francis was “undermining the deposit of faith.” 

‘I am grateful for this new responsibility’

The Texas Catholic, the newspaper for the Diocese of Dallas, said on Friday that Kelly will be installed in Tyler on Feb. 24, 2025. 

“I am grateful for this new responsibility and will do my best to serve the priests, deacons, religious, and faithful of the Diocese of Tyler,” the paper quoted Kelly as saying. 

The bishop-elect was born on Feb. 15, 1956, in Le Mars, Iowa. He received a degree in philosophy from the University of Dallas while in priestly formation at Holy Trinity Seminary in Irving, Texas. He later received a master of divinity from the university. 

He was ordained in the Dallas Diocese on May 15, 1982, by Bishop Thomas Tschoepe. He served in numerous roles throughout the diocese, including as pastor at multiple churches and as the chaplain at the University of Dallas. From 2008 to 2016 he served as the vicar of clergy for the Dallas Diocese.

In 2016 he was ordained an auxiliary bishop of the diocese, where he has served since. He also serves as the vicar general and moderator of the curia. 

His other responsibilities have included serving as the diocesan vocations director and as a member of the diocesan review board. He also served as apostolic administrator there from 2016–2017. 

Dallas Bishop Edward Burns said on Friday that the pope “has chosen a loyal and committed bishop to serve in the Diocese of Tyler,“ though he said that “our beloved brother will be missed here in the Diocese of Dallas.”

“We acknowledge that Pope Francis has chosen a man who possesses the heart of the Good Shepherd and will serve the people of God in the Diocese of Tyler well,” Burns said. 

Pope Francis meets with U.S. President Joe Biden on Friday, June 14, 2024, after a session at the G7 summit, which is being held June 13–15 in the southern Italian region of Puglia. / Credit: Vatican Media

CNA Staff, Dec 19, 2024 / 19:45 pm (CNA).

U.S. President Joe Biden accepted an invitation to visit Pope Francis next month and discuss efforts to advance peace, the White House announced on Thursday. 

Biden, the country’s second Catholic president, is set to travel to Rome from Jan. 9–12 at Pope Francis’ invitation. His audience with Pope Francis is set for Jan. 10 and will focus on efforts to advance peace around the world.

The trip announcement came following a Thursday telephone conversation between Pope Francis and Biden, during which the two leaders discussed “efforts to advance peace around the world during the holiday season,” according to a Dec. 19 statement from the White House. 

“The president thanked the pope for his continued advocacy to alleviate global suffering, including his work to advance human rights and protect religious freedoms,” the statement read. “President Biden also graciously accepted His Holiness Pope Francis’ invitation to visit the Vatican next month.”

Biden is also set to meet with Italy’s president, Sergio Mattarella, and Prime Minister of Italy Giorgia Meloni during his visit. The White House noted that Biden will thank Meloni for her leadership of the G7 over the past year. The G7 Summit is an annual meeting of government leaders from the U.S., Canada, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Japan, and Italy.

Overseas visits this late in a U.S. presidency are rare. The most recent overseas visit in the last month of a president’s term was more than 30 years ago, when outgoing president George H.W. Bush visited Moscow to sign a nuclear treaty and Paris for talks with the French president about the Bosnian war. 

Biden last met with Pope Francis in June of this year where the two discussed foreign policy in Israel, Gaza, and the Ukraine as well as climate change. During a private audience at the G7 Summit in Apulia, Italy, the two leaders “emphasized the urgent need for an immediate ceasefire and a hostage deal” in Gaza and the need to “address the critical humanitarian crisis,” according to the White House. 

At the time, Biden also thanked Pope Francis for the Vatican’s work to address the humanitarian concerns in Ukraine and for his efforts to address climate change.

The two have consistently discussed the Israel-Hamas war since October 2023, when they spoke over the phone about preventing escalation and working toward peace in the wake of the Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attacks in which Hamas killed more than 1,200 men, women, and children. 

Biden previously met with Pope Francis in October 2021 for about 75 minutes to discuss poverty, climate change, and other issues. That was Biden’s first in-person meeting with the pontiff as president, but the two leaders also spoke on the phone shortly after the presidential election. Biden had met Pope Francis three times before becoming president. 

Pope Francis has criticized Biden in the past for his promotion of legal abortion as a Catholic, calling it an “incoherence” in a 2022 interview. Pope Francis said: “Let [Biden] talk to his pastor about that incoherence.” 

The Holy Father also recently called for an end to production and use of anti-personnel explosives in November, just a week after Biden approved Ukraine’s use of American land mines in the Russia-Ukraine war. 

During the past four years of Biden’s administration, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops has been consistently at odds with the Biden administration over issues related to abortion and gender ideology.

An FBI agent stands outside the Houck residence in Kintnersville, Pennsylvania, on Sept. 23, 2022. Mark Houck was arrested that day and charged with assaulting a Planned Parenthood escort outside an Philadelphia abortion clinic on Oct. 13, 2021. / Credit: Photo courtesy of the Houck family

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Dec 19, 2024 / 17:35 pm (CNA).

House Republican lawmakers discussed repealing the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act on Wednesday after hearing testimony alleging the law has been weaponized against pro-life protesters.

The FACE Act, which has been federal law for 30 years, imposes harsher prison sentences for people who obstruct access to abortion clinics or pro-life pregnancy resource centers. However, under President Joe Biden’s Department of Justice (DOJ), the law has almost exclusively been used to convict pro-life demonstrators.

Rep. Chip Roy introduced legislation to repeal the FACE Act in 2023, but the bill failed to make it out of the Judiciary Committee. If a repeal effort were to pass the House, it would need to overcome the filibuster in the Senate by garnering support from seven Democrats in the upcoming session. The effort has not gotten support from any Democratic lawmakers.

On Wednesday, Dec. 18, lawmakers heard testimony about the alleged targeting of pro-life activists in a House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution and Limited Government hearing.

Unequal enforcement against pro-life advocates

Roy, who chairs the subcommittee, noted during the hearing that the Biden DOJ brought 25 FACE Act cases against more than 50 offenders.

Only two of those cases were against pro-abortion activists who vandalized pro-life pregnancy resource centers despite the numerous attacks following the Supreme Court overturning of Roe v. Wade. The remainder have been invoked against pro-life demonstrators. 

More than a dozen pro-life activists, several of whom are elderly and in poor health, are either in prison or awaiting sentencing for FACE Act violations. 

Lauren Handy, 31, who was given the longest sentence, is serving four years and nine months in prison. Other activists serving at least two years include 75-year-old Paulette Harlow and 74-year-old Jean Marshall. The oldest activist convicted under Biden’s tenure is 89-year-old Eva Edl, who is a survivor of a communist concentration camp in the former Yugoslavia and is currently awaiting sentencing.  

“Unequal application of the law is not truly law,” Roy said. “It is tyranny imposed on those who didn’t have the power by those who do have it. That’s contrary to everything we believe as Americans.”

Paul Vaughn, who was convicted of violating the FACE Act for his role in a March 2021 protest at an abortion clinic in Mt. Juliet, Tennessee, testified at the hearing that he peacefully prayed but never personally blocked anyone from entering the clinic. Others at the demonstration engaged in a nonviolent sit-in in front of the clinic doors and were also convicted. 

“I did nothing that was outside my constitutionally protected free speech and religious freedom,” Vaughn said. “I did nothing that day that I’ve not done many times since [the FACE Act] was passed in 1994. I did not sit in, I broke no laws, federal or local, and I was not arrested the day of the event.” 

Although local police did not arrest him, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) raided his home in October 2022 to arrest him under FACE Act charges, nearly a year and a half later. 

“My house was assaulted, my wife and children were terrorized, and I was kidnapped at gunpoint by four armed men,” he said. “I had just sent three of my children to the car so I could take them to school when the house began to shake from a loud banging near the front door. I heard men shouting on my porch, ‘Open up, FBI!’”

“I opened the door and stepped out onto the porch, staring down the barrels of both a pistol and an automatic weapon pointed at my head,” he added.

Vaughn did not get prison time but was given three years of supervised release. He testified that for him, “all this process is [still] a punishment.” 

“There are those who are in jail today while we are discussing this abuse, some of them for over a year at this point,” Vaughn said. 

Republicans and Democrats disagree

During the hearing, Roy reiterated his call to repeal the FACE Act and urged President-elect Donald Trump to pardon or commute the sentences of pro-life activists convicted under the law — something that Trump has said he intends to do. 

Rep. Dan Bishop, one of the Republican members of the committee, said during the hearing that “it just seems to me troubling.” 

“You got guns drawn and pointed at a man’s head and [you have] his children … stopped at the side,” Bishop said, adding that “we’re in an environment where we’re always talking about [how] police officers should deescalate [situations].” 

Republican Rep. Harriet Hageman said the “abuse of the FACE Act is an attempt to criminalize the free thought and the ability for people to … peacefully protest.”

“It’s a sad day in America when someone who is praying … [to] be arrested years later for that behavior,” she added.

Republican Rep. Tom McClintock added that the FACE Act is “being administered by people with political biases” and questioned whether there was a way to prevent weaponization without repealing the entirety of the law. 

Democrats, however, disagreed that the law has been weaponized and stressed that lawmakers should keep the FACE Act rules in place. 

“[Republicans] are really just giving themselves another opportunity to signal their support to the extremists plotting to criminalize or block access to abortion across the country,” Democratic Rep. Mary Scanlon said.

Democratic Rep. Jerry Nadler said: “Republicans have found no — zero — credible or direct evidence that supports their specious claims regarding what they alleged is the Department of Justice’s uneven enforcement of the FACE Act.”

“Anti-abortion extremists continue to use violence, threats, and disruption to curb access to abortion,” Nadler said. “So Republicans want to repeal the law that explicitly protects patients, providers, and facilities that provide reproductive health services from these ongoing threats.”

FBI Director Christopher Wray and Attorney General Merrick Garland have denied that the FBI or DOJ have been targeting pro-life activists with FACE Act prosecutions.

null / Credit: RasyidArt/Shutterstock

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Dec 19, 2024 / 15:55 pm (CNA).

A school district in Ohio must pay a teacher a $450,000 settlement after it forced her to resign for refusing to participate in the “social transition” of minor students.

Attorneys representing Ohio teacher Vivian Geraghty at the legal group Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) announced news of the substantial settlement in a Dec. 18 press release, stating that the Jackson Local School District would pay damages and attorney fees for violating Geraghty’s freedom of speech. 

ADF had filed suit against the district in December 2022 over the dispute. 

“No school official can force a teacher to set her religious beliefs aside in order to keep her job,” stated ADF Legal Counsel Logan Spena in the release following news of the settlement.

“The school tried to force Vivian to accept and repeat the school’s viewpoint on issues that go to the foundation of morality and human identity, like what makes us male or female, by ordering her to personally participate in the social transition of her students,” Spena said.

“The First Amendment prohibits that abuse of power, and Jackson Local School District officials have learned that comes at a steep cost,” she added. “Vivian resisted this unconstitutional demand and explained that her Christian faith made her unable to participate in her students’ social transition, and she has received just vindication for taking this stand.”

Geraghty was working as an English teacher at Jackson Memorial Middle School in the northeast Ohio city of Massillon when two students approached her asking that she use pronouns and names that were inconsistent with their biological sex in order to facilitate “social transition.” 

Because of her firmly held Christian beliefs, Geraghty attempted to reach a solution with the school’s administration. However, the principal and the district’s curriculum director told her “she would be required to put her beliefs aside as a public servant” and that her refusal would “not work in a district like Jackson.”  

When she refused to affirm the students’ “gender identity,” the district curriculum director “handed Geraghty a laptop and ordered her to draft her letter of resignation in the adjoining room for immediate submission,” according to ADF.

ADF Senior Counsel Tyson Langhofer, director of the ADF Center for Academic Freedom, also condemned the district’s violation of Geraghty’s religious beliefs in an ADF press release at the time of the filing.

Geraghty wished to “avoid using her voice to validate ideas that violate her faith and jeopardize her students’ well-being,” Langhofer said at the time. 

“Increasing evidence suggests that this approach may lead adolescents to unnecessarily pursue dangerous medical interventions like puberty-blocking drugs, cross-sex hormones, or life-altering surgeries,” he pointed out. 

“Vivian treated every student with equality and respect, and it was unlawful for school officials to terminate her employment.” 

The payout comes several months after a similar ADF victory in which a school board in Virginia agreed to pay a teacher more than half a million dollars after he was fired for refusing to use a student’s transgender pronouns.

The faithful adore Christ in the Blessed Sacrament at Adoration Sodality Day at the Shrine of the Most Blessed Sacrament. / Credit: Photo courtesy of the Shrine of the Most Blessed Sacrament

National Catholic Register, Dec 19, 2024 / 14:55 pm (CNA).

On Dec. 19, 1999, the Shrine of the Most Blessed Sacrament in Hanceville, Alabama, was officially opened and consecrated. The opening Mass was celebrated by the Diocese of Birmingham’s bishop at the time, Bishop David Foley. Opening at the same time was Our Lady of the Angels Monastery. Then came the next awe-inspiring moment. 

“One vivid memory that I have is of the moment when the shield in front of the monstrance came down for the first time,” recalled Franciscan Father Joseph Mary Wolfe, chaplain and chapel dean for EWTN. “The monstrance presented for the first time the newly consecrated Sacred Host from the dedication Mass for adoration. The choir and orchestra that Mother Angelica had arranged for began to sing the ‘Hallelujah Chorus’ from Handel’s ‘Messiah’ and adoration began — forever changing the atmosphere of the temple, the monastery, and the surrounding area, because of the profound presence of the Eucharistic Lord who is loved and adored there.”

Father Joseph Mary was present from the start. He shared how various potential locations weren’t “quite right.” 

But then Mother Mary Angelica of the Annunciation saw the countryside acreage about 50 miles north of EWTN’s headquarters in Irondale. 

“I got out of the car and I knew. I felt the Lord’s presence so strongly. I knew this is where he wanted us,” the foundress of the Poor Clares of Perpetual Adoration detailed in her biography.

“When Mother saw the property in Hanceville, she knew this was the place,” Father Joseph Mary said. “One of the things that confirmed the location was the fact that the land was purchased for the very first time by the first owner of the land on Aug. 2, which is the feast of Our Lady of the Angels, which is the name of the monastery. When they first began excavations of the land, they discovered white clay in the area where the temple now is.” Since clay in Alabama is red, “they saw this as another confirmation.”

Then came a direction straight from the Lord himself, Father Joseph Mary explained.

“Her experience with the child Jesus at the Shrine of Divino Niño in Bogotá, Colombia, gave her the impetus from the child Jesus himself: ‘Build me a temple, and I will help those who help you.’ The genuineness of Mother Angelica’s experience is confirmed by the fact that the shrine exists and the benefactors’ businesses all prospered, as they later related to Mother Angelica.”

Brother Bernard Mary of the Franciscan Missionaries of the Eternal Word, who was also present at the beginning of the shrine, told the National Catholic Register, CNA’s sister news partner, that the shrine “has fulfilled Mother Angelica’s vision by becoming a place of pilgrimage for the laity, priests, and religious with a special emphasis on rekindling Eucharistic devotion.” He added that “another aspect that may be overlooked is how it has transformed the lives of the Poor Clares of Perpetual Adoration. When they were in Irondale, they eventually became surrounded by EWTN facilities.”

“It was impossible for them not to be affected by the noise and busyness of the network,” he said. “In Hanceville, they are able to return to their contemplative vocation in the midst of an idyllic pastoral setting. That was certainly one of Mother Angelica’s intentions when she moved the community.”

The shrine materializes

The monastery-farm project, breaking ground in 1996, blossomed into “a monumental complex of European-style architecture in rural Alabama.”

Brother Bernard explained that five anonymous families financed everything because they “wanted to give the best of the best to Our Lord. No expense was spared.”

The design of both the Shrine of the Most Blessed Sacrament and Our Lady of the Angels Monastery is Romanesque-Gothic architecture inspired by great 13th-century Franciscan churches and monasteries, especially in Assisi and Umbria.

Inside the shrine, the altar, sanctuary floor, and intricately designed temple floor are of exquisite marbles from Italy, Macedonia, Spain, Brazil, South Africa, Finland, and Turkey.

The beautifully designed and colorful stained-glass windows were made by famed glassmakers in Munich, Germany. The 55-feet-high, gold-leafed, hand-carved reredos of cedar from Paraguay becomes the throne for the nearly-eight-foot monstrance where Our Lord in the Most Blessed Sacrament is worshipped in perpetual adoration and solemn exposition.

The statue of El Divino Niño in the shrine replicates the one Mother saw in Colombia. In the huge piazza, the centerpiece is another statue of the divine child Jesus.

Commenting on the completed shrine, Mother Angelica said at the time: “I never in my wildest dreams thought it would be so beautiful. At every turn he would change it. It got bigger and bigger, and more and more beautiful. In every possible way he intercepted our ideas and we could see what he wanted. He designed it; he built it; he paid for it.”

Countless blessings

Seeds for vocations were planted at the shrine, too, such as for Father Patrick Mary of the Franciscan Missionaries of the Eternal Word. In 2000, home after his first semester away at college, he drove with his parents and seven siblings from Florida to northern Alabama. The family decided to attend the Christmas midnight Mass at the Shrine of the Most Blessed Sacrament.

“I was an unsuspecting pilgrim walking across the piazza toward the shrine for Mass that night,” Father Patrick Mary recalled to the Register. “I had no idea that I was about to have a religious experience that would change the direction of my life. Although I had been going to Mass regularly on Sundays, I was quite lukewarm and mediocre interiorly, and the priesthood was not something on my mind.”

“A number of things struck me at the Mass — the beauty of the church, the reverence that I witnessed, and the use of Latin and of incense,” he vividly recalled. “The Gregorian chant and polyphony sung by the nuns was also very edifying and inspiring and was quite a contrast to the heavy-metal music which I had immersed myself in the previous few years. It was in the midst of all this at the Mass, that a clear and peaceful desire to be a priest was put on my heart. And it never went away. This led to my discernment of the priesthood and the religious life and to entering the Franciscan Missionaries of the Eternal Word.”

Looking back on the shrine’s silver jubilee, Father Patrick Mary said: “I’m grateful to God for the many graces given me at the Shrine of the Most Blessed Sacrament and for the graces that continue to be poured out on pilgrims who come from all over, seeking a place of prayer, of peace, and of spiritual refreshment. For 25 years our God has been adored there in the Blessed Sacrament, day in and day out, by the Poor Clares of Perpetual Adoration and by pilgrims from all over. It is a most fitting place to give thanks to the Lord, whose goodness and love endure forever.”

In these past 25 years, the Shrine of the Most Blessed Sacrament has likely brought about countless conversions.

Brother Leo Mary easily recalls how many people came into the Church 25 years ago. 

“About 80 people came into the Church just at the beginning, when that shrine was being built,” he told the Register. “Bishops said they had a lot coming into the Catholic Church just because of them going to see the shrine. They would ask what drew these people to the faith, and a lot of it was EWTN and also the shrine, so that’s powerful.”

The visitors never stopped. Then, like today, “it was all about the Eucharist,” Brother Leo Mary said. Since he gives tours of the shrine and works with the pilgrims, he finds that so many “come to the shrine when they see signs for it on well-traveled roads. We get a lot of people come through that are non-Catholics, all of the denominations, and God loves them. … They stop by, and it’s beautiful to see how God is working on all these beautiful people.”

“Everything is about the Eucharist,” he underscored. “When you go into the main church, everything is pointing to the monstrance, everything points to Jesus in the Eucharist, and it’s very powerful in that sense. They learn about the faith and see the beauty.”

“Mother Angelica always wanted people to come to know Jesus,” Brother Leo Mary added. The Blessed Sacrament Shrine is “all about pointing you to Jesus and how much he loves you. That’s what she wanted.”

The shrine grows

Along the way, the Shrine of the Most Blessed Sacrament and Our Lady of the Angels Monastery dedicated another addition on Dec. 8, 2013 — the new John Paul II Eucharistic Center. Cardinal Raymond Burke celebrated the dedication Mass. At that time, he told the Register: “Mother Angelica, in her profoundly rich and courageous love of the Catholic faith and in her desire to bring the Catholic faith to all, rightly founded a shrine dedicated the mystery of the Most Holy Eucharist.

He added that “all of us in the Church should have a particular appreciation for the inspiration of Mother Angelica in establishing a shrine of the Most Blessed Sacrament.”

How does Father Joseph Mary see Mother’s vision has worked out for the shrine over these 25 years? 

“This is just the beginning,” he said. “It has benefitted so many souls already and sparked vocations, including our own Father Patrick’s vocation. I believe greater things are yet to come.” 

A Prayer for the Silver Jubilee 

This prayer was composed for this silver anniversary by Poor Clare Sister Mary Michael, one of the original sisters of the Poor Clares of Perpetual Adoration to come from Ohio to Alabama with Mother Angelica:

“Dearest Jesus, at this time when our hearts are overflowing with gratitude for the infinite love you show us in your incarnation, we’re also thankful for this beautiful shrine and monastery that you inspired Mother Angelica to build; a temple where you would always be loved and adored in the Most Blessed Sacrament. This beautiful chapel is a place where everyone can spend quiet time with you, the God of love, in adoration and intimate conversation.

“Our hearts have always been filled with love and gratitude for all our friends and benefactors who made this shrine possible and help keep it going. They are daily remembered in our prayers. Bless each one of them, Jesus; keep them safe and reward them with the greatest gift you can give to anyone — the gift of yourself.”

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