President Donald J. Trump watches as Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Health and Human Services Secretary, speaks after being sworn in on Thursday, Feb. 13, 2025, in Washington, D.C. / Credit: Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post via Getty Images

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Dec 18, 2025 / 13:31 pm (CNA).

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) proposed regulations today that would seek to end “sex-rejecting procedures” on anyone younger than 18 years old, which includes restrictions on hospitals and retailers.

Under one proposal, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) would withhold all funding through Medicare and Medicaid to any hospital that offers surgeries or drugs to minors as a means to make them resemble the opposite sex. The proposed rules would prohibit federal Medicaid funding for “sex-rejecting procedures” on anyone under 18 and prohibit federal Children’s Health Insurance program (CHIP) funding for the procedures on anyone under 19.

This includes surgical operations, such as the removal of healthy genitals to replace them with artificial genitals that resemble the opposite sex and chest procedures that remove the healthy breasts on girls or implant prosthetic breasts on boys.

It also includes hormone treatments that attempt to masculinize girls with testosterone and feminize boys with estrogen and puberty blockers, which delay a child’s natural developments during puberty.

HHS also announced that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is issuing warning letters to 12 manufacturers and retailers that they accuse of illegally marketing “breast binders” to girls under the age of 18 as a treatment for gender dysphoria. Breast binders compress breasts as a means to flatten them under their clothing.

The news release said breast binders are Class 1 medical devices meant to help recover from cancer-related mastectomies, and the warning letters will “formally notify the companies of their significant regulatory violations and how they should take prompt corrective action.”

Additionally, HHS is working to clarify the definition of a “disability” in civil rights regulations to exclude “gender dysphoria” that does not result from physical impairments. This ensures that discrimination laws are not interpreted in a way that would require “sex-rejecting procedures,” the statement said.

HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said in a news conference that “sex-rejecting procedures” on minors are “endangering the very lives that [doctors] are sworn to safeguard.”

“So-called gender-affirming care has inflicted lasting physical and psychological damage on vulnerable young people,” he said. “This is not medicine — it is malpractice.” 

The proposals would conform HHS regulations to President Donald Trump’s Jan. 28 executive order to prohibit the “chemical and surgical mutilation” of children. The order instructed HHS to propose regulations to prevent these procedures on minors.

In a news release, HHS repeatedly referred to the medical interventions as “sex-rejecting procedures” and warned they “cause irreversible damage, including infertility, impaired sexual function, diminished bone density, altered brain development, and other irreversible physiological effects.”

HHS cited its own report from May, which found “deep uncertainty about the purported benefits of these interventions” for treating a minor with gender dysphoria. The report found that “these interventions carry risk of significant harms,” which can include infertility, sexual dysfunction, underdeveloped bone mass, cardiovascular disease, metabolic disorders, psychiatric disorders, and adverse cognitive impacts, among other complications.

Stanley Goldfarb, chairman of Do No Harm, a medical advocacy group, said in a statement that the proposed regulation on hospitals is “another critical step to protect children from harmful gender ideology” and said he supports rules that ensure “American taxpayer dollars do not fund sex-change operations on minors.”

“Many so-called gender clinics have already begun to close as the truth about the risks and long-term harms about these drugs and surgeries on minors have been exposed,” he said. “Now, hospitals that receive taxpayer funds from these federal programs must follow suit.”

Mary Rice Hasson, director of the Person and Identity Project at the Ethics and Public Policy Center (EPPC), said she sees the proposed restriction on hospitals as “excellent.”

“This proposed rule sends a powerful message to states and health care providers: It’s time to stop these unethical and dangerous procedures,” Hasson said. “Puberty is not a disease to be medicated away. All children have the right to grow and develop normally.”

“Sex-rejecting procedures promise the impossible: that a child can escape the reality of being male or female,” she added. “In reality, these sex-rejecting procedures provide only the illusion of ‘changing sex’ by disabling healthy functions and altering the child’s healthy body through drugs and surgery that will cause lifelong harm.”

In January, Bishop Robert Barron, chair of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ (USCCB) Committee on Laity, Marriage, Family Life, and Youth, welcomed Trump’s executive action on these procedures, warning that they are “based on a false understanding of human nature, attempt to change a child’s sex.”

“So many young people who have been victims of this ideological crusade have profound regrets over its life-altering consequences, such as infertility and lifelong dependence on costly hormone therapies that have significant side effects,” Barron said. “It is unacceptable that our children are encouraged to undergo destructive medical interventions instead of receiving access to authentic and bodily-unitive care.”

The Michigan capitol building in Lansing. / Credit: John McLenaghan/Shutterstock

CNA Staff, Dec 18, 2025 / 12:36 pm (CNA).

Counselors and therapists in Michigan will be allowed to treat children who believe themselves to be the opposite sex, striking down a Michigan law that outlawed such counseling by claiming it constitutes “conversion therapy.”

The Dec. 17 ruling at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit blocked the Michigan law by stating that it “discriminates based on viewpoint” by forbidding therapists from counseling children that they are their own biological sex rather than the opposite sex.

The court noted that the law “expressly” allows therapists to help children commit to a so-called “transition” to the opposite sex. The rule is a “near-certain violation” of the First Amendment, the order said.

The Michigan law was passed on the grounds that steering children away from a transgender identity constitutes “conversion” similar to counseling that seeks to mitigate same-sex attraction. LGBT advocates claim that such “conversion therapy” has been discredited and constitutes a danger to therapy patients.

The lawsuit was first brought to court in July 2024 after the law passed in February of that year. A lower court had earlier ruled against the therapists’ claims that their counseling constitutes protected First Amendment speech.

The appeals court held in its ruling that the Michigan law is discriminatory insofar as it “permits speech on a particular topic only if the speech expresses a viewpoint that the government itself approves.”

“The default … is that the First Amendment protects all speech,” the court held. The Michigan government “[did] not even attempt to identify” that the government has regularly controlled the speech of therapists as the law moves to do.

The plaintiffs in the case — which include a Catholic Charities group and a Catholic therapist — have been represented by the religious liberty law firm Becket. Lead attorney Luke Goodrich said in a Dec. 17 press release that the decision represented “a victory for children nationwide.”

“Michigan’s law was pushing children toward irreversible medical procedures that cause lasting harms,” he said.

“This ruling ensures that children who want it can receive compassionate, evidence-based counseling that alleviates their distress and helps them embrace their bodies without resorting to irreversible, life-altering medical interventions.”

The Michigan government may appeal the decision.

LGBT advocates have argued in recent years that children who claim to be the opposite sex should be facilitated in “transitioning” to a facsimile of the opposite sex, including through cross-sex hormones and procedures such as castrations and irreversible mastectomies.

The Trump administration since January has moved to aggressively limit the ability of doctors and institutions to carry out such procedures, including an executive order restricting so-called transgender surgeries and drugs for youth.

Multiple hospitals around the country have ended child transgender surgeries and programs under pressure from the White House, including the prominent Center for Transyouth Health and Development at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles.

President Donald Trump in August also directed states to remove gender ideology materials from their curriculums or else face the loss of federal funding.

New York Archbishop-elect Ronald Hicks and Cardinal Timothy Dolan hold a press conference at St. Patrick’s Cathedral on Dec. 18, 2025, in New York City. / Credit: Adam Gray/Getty Images

CNA Staff, Dec 18, 2025 / 06:00 am (CNA).

The newly announced leader of the Catholic Church in New York expressed “heartfelt gratitude” on Dec. 18 for having been appointed to the post by Pope Leo XIV.

Archbishop-elect Ronald Hicks, who will head the Archdiocese of New York after leading the Diocese of Joliet, Illinois, said at a Thursday press conference that he accepted the Holy Father’s appointment “with great humility” and “an open heart.” 

Hicks addressed media at St. Patrick’s Cathedral alongside outgoing Cardinal Archbishop Timothy Dolan, who turned 75 earlier this year, the customary age at which a prelate submits his resignation to the Holy See. 

The new archbishop-designate reflected on his formation under past Church leaders in his hometown of Chicago, including Cardinal Joseph Bernardin, Cardinal Francis George, and Chicago’s current archbishop, Cardinal Blase Cupich. “For all of them, I’m deeply grateful,” he said. 

Makes first ‘controversial statement’

At the press conference Hicks jokingly announced what he anticipated would be his “first controversial statement” by admitting his unending devotion to his hometown Chicago Cubs baseball team and his love of the Windy City’s iconic deep dish pizza. 

“I want you to know that I am going to remain a loyal Cubs fan,” he said. “However, I am going to start rooting for the New York sports teams. And I already love your pizza. I love it a lot.”

The prelate admitted he would miss the Joliet Diocese, at which he has served for the last five years. “I have felt happy, grateful, and blessed to be their bishop,” he said. “Together, we have worked with some missionary zeal to catechize, to evangelize, and to put our faith into action as disciples who make disciples.”

Describing New York City as “rich in energy, languages, cultures, and people,” he said he was excited to get to know the city, though he acknowledged that the archdiocese is facing “complex and challenging days” including issues of life, faith, and “healing.” 

Hicks specifically said he was committed to learning about the archdiocese’s efforts to compensate survivors of sexual abuse. The archdiocese is currently pursuing a settlement for victims that is expected to top $300 million.

“As a Church, we can never rest in our efforts to prevent abuse, to protect children, and to care for survivors,” he said. 

The prelate said he looks forward to “working closely and collaboratively with the priests, the deacons, the religious, the lay leaders of [the] archdiocese” as well as working with the “great variety and diversity of faith leaders and civic leaders” that populate New York City. 

Addressing the archdiocese’s Spanish-speaking faithful, the archbishop-designate spoke in Spanish of his past ministry in Mexico and Central America, including five years in El Salvador. 

Saying he has “an enormous heart for Latino culture and Hispanic people,” he mentioned he has two Colombian nephews, Puerto Rican godparents, many Dominican friends, and that he intends “to walk with all of you, together, as brothers and sisters.”

Responding to speculation in the media and on the internet as to who he is as a bishop, Hicks said: “If you want to know the core of who I am and what I stand for, you should know this: I love Jesus with my mind, heart, and soul, and I strive to love my neighbor as myself.”

“My desire is to be obedient to the Holy Spirit and to do the will of God, serving with a shepherd’s heart,” he emphasized.

This story was updated at 11:57 a.m. on Dec. 18, 2025.

U.S. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth (at right) meets with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio (at left) and then-National Security Adviser Mike Waltz (at center). / Credit: The White House, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

CNA Staff, Dec 17, 2025 / 20:05 pm (CNA).

U.S. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth announced that he has issued a directive aimed at reforming the military’s Chaplain Corps, beginning with the elimination of the U.S. Army’s current Spiritual Fitness Guide.

In a video post, Hegseth described a “real problem” facing the nation’s military forces: “the weakening of our Chaplain Corps,” which has “been going on for far too long.”

“In an atmosphere of political correctness and secular humanism, chaplains have been minimized, viewed by many as therapists instead of ministers,” he said. “Faith and virtue were traded for self help and self care.”

Hegseth said that “chaplains are intended to be the spiritual and moral backbone of our nation’s forces,” recalling that at the outset of the American Revolution, Gen. George Washington, in one of his first acts as commander of the Continental Army, established the Chaplain Corps because he saw the need for “the blessing and protection of heaven … especially in times of public distress and danger.”

“For about 200 years, the Chaplain Corps continued its role as the spiritual leader of our service members, serving our men and women in times of hardship and ministering to their souls,” he said.

In what he described as an “ongoing war on warriors” in recent years, Hegseth said the role of chaplains “has been degraded.”

He cited the current Army Spiritual Fitness Guide, which he said mentions God only once and has “zero” references to virtue, relying instead “on New Age notions, saying that the soldier’s spirit consists of consciousness, creativity, and connection.”

According to the guide, Hegseth said, about “82% of the military are religious, yet, ironically, [the guide] alienates our war fighters of faith by pushing secular humanism. In short, it’s unacceptable and unserious. So we’re tossing it.”

“Our chaplains are chaplains, not emotional support officers,” he said.

According to Hegseth, the reforms will be “a top-down cultural shift, putting spiritual well-being on the same footing as mental and physical health.”

He said initial reforms will result in the removal of training materials that “have no place in the War Department” as well as the streamlining of religious affiliation coding practices, with more changes in the coming weeks and months.

“We’re going to restore the esteemed position of chaplains as moral anchors for our fighting force,” Hegseth said.

Quoting the 1956 army chaplain’s manual, Hegseth said: “‘The chaplain is the pastor and the shepherd of the souls entrusted to his care.’”

“This is a high and sacred calling,” he continued, “but this only works if our shepherds are actually given the freedom to boldly guide and care for their flock.”

Disabilities advocates in Buffalo, New York, during a candlelight vigil in opposition to assisted suicide. / Credit: New York Alliance Against Assisted Suicide

CNA Staff, Dec 17, 2025 / 17:00 pm (CNA).

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul will sign into law an assisted suicide bill that Catholic leaders have ardently opposed, making New York the 13th state to allow the practice. 

Hochul, who called it an “incredibly difficult decision,” said she will sign the bill after lawmakers add some “guardrails.” The bill allows doctors to give terminally ill patients drugs to end their lives. Hochul’s additions to the law include requiring a waiting period, a recorded oral request for death, and a health evaluation. The law will go into effect six months after signing.    

Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York and other New York bishops have been outspoken against the legislation, issuing several statements opposing it. In a brief meeting with Hochul over the summer, Dolan urged her not to sign the measure. 

Earlier this month, Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker signed into law similar assisted suicide legislation. Other jurisdictions that permit assisted suicide include: California, Colorado, Delaware, Hawaii, Maine, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, Vermont, Washington, and the District of Columbia.

Hochul, who is a Catholic University of America alumna, said in a Dec. 17 statement that the bill will enable people “to suffer less — to shorten not their lives, but their deaths.”

“New York has long been a beacon of freedom, and now it is time we extend that freedom to terminally ill New Yorkers who want the right to die comfortably and on their own terms,” Hochul said. 

“My mother died of ALS, and I am all too familiar with the pain of seeing someone you love suffer and being powerless to stop it,” she continued. 

In a joint statement, Dolan and the bishops of New York state said they were “extraordinarily troubled” by Hochul’s announcement. 

The bishops say the law endangers the vulnerable, calling assisted suicide “a grave moral evil” that “is in direct conflict with Catholic teaching on the sacredness and dignity of all human life.” 

“This new law signals our government’s abandonment of its most vulnerable citizens, telling people who are sick or disabled that suicide in their case is not only acceptable but is encouraged by our elected leaders,” the Dec. 17 statement said. 

The Patients’ Rights Action Fund, a nonpartisan group that opposes assisted suicide on the grounds that it is inherentaly discriminatory, said that “safeguards” in bills like the one Hochul said she would sign “are falling short” where they exist.

“The amendments added that try to address the serious dangers that come with legalizing assisted suicide do nothing to protect people who deserve care and support from the state and their medical teams,” Matt Vallière, who heads the group, said in a Dec. 17 statement shared with CNA. 

Citing the tragic case of Eileen Mihich, a woman struggling with mental illness who died under the assisted suicide law in Washington state, Vallière said that “it is impossible to prevent abuse of the law in which people not on the verge of dying can utilize assisted suicide.”

“There is no true accountability to protect patients from potential harm, abuse, or coercion,” Vallière continued.

The New York bishops also raised concerns about mental health, saying the law “will seriously undermine” anti-suicide and mental health care efforts made by Hochul. 

“How can any society have credibility to tell young people or people with depression that suicide is never the answer, while at the same time telling elderly and sick people that it is a compassionate choice to be celebrated?” the bishops stated. 

The bishops urged the state to instead invest in palliative care, which is medicine focused on relieving suffering and improving quality of life for people with serious illnesses. 

“We call on Catholics and all New Yorkers to reject physician-assisted suicide for themselves, their loved ones, and those in their care,” the bishops said. “And we pray that our state turns away from its promotion of a culture of death and invest instead in life-affirming, compassionate hospice and palliative care, which is seriously underutilized.”

Vallière also called for better access to palliative care. 

“Gov. Hochul’s statements undermine the importance of hospice and palliative care, which provides the compassionate end-of-life experience for which so many are advocating but is drastically underutilized in New York,” Vallière said. “We need more access to this care, not a fast track to death in the absence of it.”

Illinois state capitol in Springfield. / Credit: Paul Brady Photography/Shutterstock

CNA Staff, Dec 17, 2025 / 12:34 pm (CNA).

Catholic leaders in Illinois are backing a coalition of pro-life pregnancy centers and doctors suing the state government over a law that requires them to refer women to abortion providers even if they object to the procedure on religious grounds. 

The lawsuit, National Institute of Family and Life Advocates v. Treto, challenges a 2016 Illinois rule that requires health care providers who refuse to perform abortions to nevertheless tout the “benefits” of the procedure and refer women to abortion clinics. 

In April the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois partly blocked the law, ruling that it violates freedom of speech in forcing providers to relay the alleged benefits of abortion. The court, however, held that the abortion referral requirement is legal. 

The case is currently at appeal from both sides in the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. On Dec. 16, the Catholic Conference of Illinois and the Illinois Catholic Health Association joined several Orthodox advocates in an amicus brief urging the court to offer the “highest level of protection” to the religious speech of the pro-life plaintiffs. 

“Providing the highest level of First Amendment protection to religious institutions gives them the predictability they need to pursue their religious missions,” the filing said, arguing that forcing health care providers to refer abortions “could lead people to believe that such conduct is morally acceptable.”

First Amendment jurisprudence, the filing argues, leaves “no doubt that the abortion-referral requirement burdens core religious speech without proper justification.”

Chicago archbishop Cardinal Blase Cupich said in a press statement that “every life deserves protection and care, no matter how fragile or dependent.” 

“The Church in Illinois is standing up for that eternal truth against Illinois’ effort to deny it,” the prelate said. 

Springfield Bishop Thomas Paprocki similarly argued that Catholics “must be free to live according to the 2,000-year-old teachings of our faith without government intrusion.” 

“Illinois’ mandate threatens that freedom by forcing Catholic ministries and health care professionals to promote a practice we believe is gravely wrong,” he said. “We pray the court will put a swift stop to it.”

The amicus brief was filed by the religious liberty law group Becket. 

Lawyers for the pro-life plaintiffs have argued that the abortion referral requirement violates the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2016 ruling in National Institute of Family and Life Advocates v. Becerra, which was brought by the same organization at the head of the Illinois dispute. 

The Supreme Court held in that decision that a similar California rule appeared to violate the First Amendment by “requiring [pro-life providers] to inform women how they can obtain state-subsidized abortions.”

San Diego Auxiliary Bishop Ramón Bejarano celebrates Mass at St. Augustine’s School on Dec. 5, 2021, to honor Our Lady of Guadalupe. / Credit: John Gastaldo/Catholic Diocese of San Diego

Vatican City, Dec 17, 2025 / 10:18 am (CNA).

Pope Leo XIV has appointed Bishop Ramón Bejarano, currently auxiliary bishop of San Diego, as the next bishop of Monterey in California. The appointment was publicized on Dec. 17 by the Holy See Press Office at the Vatican and by Cardinal Christophe Pierre, apostolic nuncio to the United States.

Bejarano succeeds Bishop Daniel E. Garcia, who led Monterey before being appointed bishop of Austin, Texas, on July 2 and installed there on Sept. 18.

Bejarano was born July 17, 1969, in Laredo, Texas, and completed ecclesiastical studies at the diocesan seminary in Tijuana, Mexico, and at Mount Angel Seminary in Oregon, the Vatican said. He was ordained a priest for the Diocese of Stockton on Aug. 15, 1998.

Named titular bishop of Carpi and auxiliary bishop of San Diego on Feb. 27, 2020, he received episcopal consecration on July 14, 2020.

The Diocese of Monterey is comprised of 21,916 square miles in California and has a total population of 1,042,464, of which 368,150 are Catholic, according to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

Carolers outside Planned Parenthood in Aurora, Illinois, on Dec. 13, 2025. / Credit: John Jansen/Courtesy of the Pro-Life Action League

CNA Staff, Dec 17, 2025 / 08:00 am (CNA).

When a pregnant woman at an abortion facility heard distant carolers singing “Silent Night,” she got up and left.

The mother, back in 2003, decided to keep her baby after a pro-life group’s first Christmas caroling event outside a Chicago abortion clinic struck her heart.

“The memories of Christmases past stirred in her and she decided she couldn’t go through with the abortion and kept her child,” said Matthew Yonke, a spokesman for the Pro-Life Action League, the group that coordinates these events. 

She would be the first of many women who chose life after hearing carols. Now, the tradition extends across the nation — and babies continue to be saved. 

As Christmas Day approaches, nearly 100 caroling groups across the U.S. are gathering at various abortion facilities to sing. 

Through the nationwide “Peace in the Womb” caroling effort, the group hopes “to bring the Christmas message of peace and joy to the darkness of abortion clinics,” according to a press release shared with CNA. 

It’s a “simple call for an end to the violence of abortion,” according to Yonke.

“At the time of Christmas, the whole world tries to put aside differences and pursue peace, so we’re asking folks to make a connection to the womb, which should be a place of peace, but which is turned into a place of violent unrest in every abortion,” Yonke continued.

Saving lives 

The carolers had already packed up after singing their final song outside an abortion site when a couple approached the remaining pro-lifers in Downers Grove, Illinois, on Dec. 13. 

The couple, Yonke said, “told the sidewalk counselors still there that they had decided to keep their baby after hearing our carols.” 

“Stories like this go all the way back to the first year,” Yonke said. “We’re thrilled when God can use these beloved songs that touch the hearts of even non-Christians to do his work in the world.”

This was one of two rescue stories so far this December that the league heard about, according to Yonke. 

“Please don’t kill your baby at Christmas,” one caroler called out to a young woman in the back seat of a car that was driving into an abortion clinic.

It was a Saturday in Milwaukee, and a group of carolers had gathered to sing outside the abortion clinic on St. Paul Avenue. 

The car drove into the abortion center parking lot. But minutes later, the car turned around with the young woman still in the back seat — she never even entered the abortion clinic.  

Salvation came through an unplanned pregnancy

Pro-Life Action League invites local pro-lifers to work with them to organize their own caroling groups. 

On Sunday, Dec. 14, one such caroling group sang outside an abortion facility in Renton, Washington. 

“This was a fantastic event and I think every Catholic church should do this in their community,” said local pro-life activist Richard Bray, who organized the caroling with the Respect Life Ministry at a local Catholic parish, St. Stephen the Martyr.

While every event organized with the league has a “Peace in the Womb” banner, Renton’s organizer would have something special — a handmade manger.  

An 88-year-old parishioner at St. Stephen’s built an empty manger that the carolers brought to the event, according to Bray. 

The empty manger not only symbolizes that Christ is coming at Christmas — but it also represents how a crib is empty after an abortion, according to Bray.

“It’s particularly sad to think of someone getting an abortion during the Christmas season,” Bray told CNA. “So we gather to sing carols and remind abortion-bound mothers and our community that the salvation of the world came through an unplanned pregnancy.”

The Wisconsin Supreme Court building in Madison, Wisconsin. / Credit: Richard Hurd/Wikimedia Commons

CNA Staff, Dec 16, 2025 / 13:00 pm (CNA).

The Wisconsin state government lost decisively a second time in what has become a convoluted effort to block a Catholic charity from receiving a long-running state tax exemption.

The Wisconsin Supreme Court on Dec. 15 blocked state Attorney General Josh Kaul’s attempt to fully eliminate an unemployment tax exemption after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the Diocese of Superior’s Catholic Charities Bureau was entitled to the tax break.

The U.S. Supreme Court in June had ruled that Wisconsin violated the First Amendment when it denied the tax exemption to the Catholic group on the grounds that the group’s charitable undertakings were not “primarily” religious.

The state responded in October by moving to eliminate the exemption entirely, arguing that the tax break is “discriminatory” and that ending the policy would “avoid collateral damage to Wisconsin workers.”

In a brief order on Dec. 15, the state’s high court affirmed that the U.S. Supreme Court ruling allows the Catholic charity to access the tax break. The court directed the state Labor and Industry Review Commission to declare the charity eligible for the exemption. 

The religious liberty law group Becket, which has represented the Catholic charity in the legal fight, said in a press release that the Wisconsin Supreme Court had ended the state government’s “crusade” against the Catholic charity. 

“You’d think Wisconsin would take a 9-0 Supreme Court loss as a hint to stop digging,” Becket Vice President Eric Rassbach said. “But apparently Attorney General Kaul and his staff are gluttons for punishment.” 

“Thankfully, the Wisconsin Supreme Court put an end to the state’s tomfoolery and confirmed that Catholic Charities is entitled to the exemption it already won,” Rassbach said. 

The ruling “protects not just Catholic Charities, but every faith-based organization that relies on this exemption to serve the public,” he added. 

In its June ruling, the U.S. Supreme Court said the First Amendment “mandates government neutrality between religions” and that Wisconsin had failed to adhere to this principle in refusing to issue the tax exemption to Catholic Charities. 

“It is fundamental to our constitutional order that the government maintain ‘neutrality between religion and religion,’” Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote in the decision. “There may be hard calls to make in policing that rule, but this is not one.”

Justice Clarence Thomas, meanwhile, said that governments “may not use [entities such as a Catholic charity] as a means of regulating the internal governance of religious institutions.”

Following the ruling this week, David Earleywine — the associate director for education and religious liberty at the Wisconsin Catholic Conference — said the Catholic charity has been fighting for the exemption for “decades.”

“[T]rue Catholic charity is inherently religious and cannot be reduced to another secular social service,” he said.

The Michigan government released another report on diocesan abuse in December 2025, detailing dozens of allegations against more than 50 priests in the Diocese of Grand Rapids. / Credit: Snehit Photo/Shutterstock

CNA Staff, Dec 16, 2025 / 12:15 pm (CNA).

The Michigan government this week released its fifth report on diocesan abuse in the state, detailing dozens of allegations against more than 50 priests in the Diocese of Grand Rapids. 

The report from the attorney general’s office, released on Dec. 15, comes after four other reports detailing abuse allegations in the dioceses of Lansing, Kalamazoo, Gaylord, and Marquette.  

As with the other reports, the allegations detailed in the Grand Rapids investigation go back decades. The Dec. 15 report encompasses abuse allegations against “priests or deacons who are current or former clergy for the Diocese of Grand Rapids, that occurred in the diocese from Jan. 1, 1950, to the present,” the review says. 

The alleged abuse reports were pulled from a variety of sources, including a government tip line, police investigations, and abuse reports disclosed by the diocese itself. 

The majority of the priests identified in the report — 37 out of 51 — are “known or presumed to be dead,” the report says, while none of the remaining 14 are in active ministry in the Grand Rapids Diocese. 

Nearly all of the potential criminal violations in the report occurred “before 2002,” it says. 

Most of the alleged abuse was reported to have occurred against “either boys or girls under the age of 16,” though the state said some alleged abuse occurred against adults. 

In a video message after the release of the report, Grand Rapids Bishop David Walkowiak offered his “deepest and most sincere apologies” to the victims of clergy abuse there. 

The prelate commended “the courage that victim-survivors have to tell their stories,” calling it a “testament to their strength and resilience.” 

“Priests are ordained to serve in the person of Christ himself, which makes the sexual abuse of minors incomprehensible and particularly harmful,” he acknowledged.

The bishop said the report partly inflates the number of victims by detailing “consensual relationships between priests and adults,” which he pointed out are “immoral [but] not in violation of Michigan law.”

Walkowiak said the diocese has “cooperated fully” with the attorney general’s office during the investigation. He noted that the diocese has implemented “numerous safeguards” to protect children — including zero-tolerance protocols — and has “diligently upheld these practices for more than 20 years.” 

State Attorney General Dana Nessel, meanwhile, said in a press statement on Dec. 15 that abuse survivors “deserve to be heard.”

“[B]y releasing these reports, we hope to honor the courage of victims and ensure their experiences are no longer hidden,” she said. 

Reports on the Archdiocese of Detroit and the Diocese of Saginaw are still forthcoming from the state and are expected to be released at a later date.