A view of a marijuana plant on Aug. 11, 2025, in San Anselmo, California. Cannabis company stocks surged by up to 10% on reports that the Trump administration is considering rescheduling marijuana on the federal level, from a Schedule I to a Schedule III drug. The move would step toward the decriminalization of the drug nationwide. / Credit: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Aug 20, 2025 / 16:58 pm (CNA).

President Donald Trump announced he might loosen the federal restrictions on marijuana, but moral and legal scholars who spoke with CNA this week expressed concern about the drug and its impact on American society.

The federal government considers marijuana — also referred to as cannabis, the name of the plant that contains psychoactive compounds called cannabinoids — a Schedule I substance. According to the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), this is reserved for drugs with “no currently accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse.”

Trump said in a news conference Aug. 11 that he is considering rescheduling it to Schedule III, which is a drug “with a moderate to low potential for physical and psychological dependence” and has abuse potential “less than Schedule I,” according to the DEA.

“We’re looking at reclassification and we’ll make a determination over the next … few weeks and that determination will hopefully be the right one,” the president said.

Trump called it a “very complicated subject” and said he hears good things about medical cannabis and bad things “with just about everything else.”

Federal law prohibits the sale of marijuana for recreational and medical use, but 40 states have medical cannabis programs and 24 states legalized recreational use. Both violate federal law, but the government has generally allowed states to regulate it as they see fit rather than enforce the prohibition.

Rescheduling marijuana would not lift the ban, but it could reduce criminal penalties, open the door for more medical research, and potentially be a step toward further deregulation.

Charles Nemeth, the director of the Center for Criminal Justice, Law, and Ethics at Franciscan University, told CNA that Schedule III is “generally for more minor things” and “the seriousness and the impact is supposed to be reflected in these schedules.”

“The [federal] ban would not exist in the same way [if Trump reschedules marijuana],” Nemeth said. “Right now, the drug is an illicit drug and it can be a felony, depending on how much you have or how much you’re selling.”

“It [would] have an enormous impact on the policymaking of law enforcement, decision-making, [and] what they concentrate on,” he added. “They [would] not look at the drug as much as they used to.”

Concerns about recreational use

The Catechism of the Catholic Church does not directly mention marijuana but broadly teaches “the use of drugs inflicts very grave damage on human health and life.” It calls drug use a “grave offense” with the exception of drugs used on “strictly therapeutic grounds,” such as treatment for a condition.

Nemeth said “marijuana’s destructive impact” is clear in studies about mental acuity and brain development, calling it “destructive to intellectual formation.” He also pointed to concerns that it may harm fertility.

On top of this, Nemeth noted the immediate impact of the high, saying: “It shuts your mind down; it makes you less intellectually curious than you normally would be.”

“It’s so contrary to human flourishing,” Nemeth said. “There is nothing that comes from the perpetual smoking of marijuna that has a positive impact on the human person.”

Father Tadeusz Pacholczyk, a senior ethicist at the National Catholic Bioethics Center, also has concerns about rescheduling marijuana, telling CNA that labeling it a Schedule I drug has “sent a much-needed message to Americans and drawn a kind of moral line for many years.”

“Adults who smoke[d] marijuana regularly during adolescence have decreased neural connectivity (abnormal brain development and fewer fibers) in specific brain regions,” he said. “These notable effects of marijuana on brain development may help to explain the association between frequent marijuana use among adolescents and significant declines in IQ, as well as poor academic performance and an increased risk of dropping out of school.”

He said drug users “seek to escape or otherwise suppress their lived conscious experience and instead pursue chemically-altered states of mind, or drug-induced pseudo-experiences.”

“Any time we act in such a manner that we treat something objectively good as if it were an evil by acting directly against it, we act in an immoral and disordered fashion and make a poor and harmful choice,” Pacholczyk said.

Catholic Answers’ senior apologist Jimmy Akin echoed those concerns, noting that “all mind-altering substances — including both marijuana and alcohol — have the potential to be misused in sinful ways.”

“The classic Catholic moral analysis distinguishes imperfect intoxication, which does not rob one of the gift of reason, from perfect intoxication, which does and disposes one to commit grave sins,” he told CNA. “To deliberately engage in perfect intoxication is itself gravely sinful.”

Jared Staudt, a Catholic theologian who serves as director of content for Exodus 90, told CNA “a federal reclassification would only further the damage” of recreational marijuana.

“It’s time to acknowledge that legalization has proven to be a failed experiment,” he said.

What about medical cannabis?

Trump’s primary motivation for the potential rescheduling is his interest in research for medicinal uses of cannabis.

According to Akin, “Catholics may have different opinions on the best legal policy regarding marijuana.” He said learning about medicinal uses could have benefits but that Catholics should make informed decisions.

“Catholics contemplating using medical marijuana should consider whether the science actually supports its use as the best treatment for a condition or whether the science has been ‘cooked’ to make marijuana more available,” he said. “If marijuana really is the best treatment for a condition, it is licit to use it for that purpose. If there is a better treatment, then that should be used instead.”

Nemeth expressed concern about most purported uses of medical cannabis. He said there are almost always alternatives to marijuana, which is a “mind-altering … product.” For mental health conditions such as anxiety or depression, he said it may mask symptoms “just because you’re high” but does not provide a cure and could exacerbate issues long-term.

“Most people who need to be high all the time are either anxious people or unhappy people or people in distress,” he said.

Alternatively, some Catholic hospitals have engaged in research about the use of medical cannabis as an alternative to opioids for pain management.

null / Credit: Brian A Jackson/Shutterstock

CNA Staff, Aug 20, 2025 / 13:26 pm (CNA).

Pro-life activists in New York state were awarded $1 this month after a court found that a county abortion clinic rule violated their constitutional free speech rights. 

The Thomas More Society brought suit in federal district court in 2022 against New York’s Westchester County over its rule forbidding “interference” with abortion access there. 

The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York found in favor of pro-life sidewalk counselors Oksana Hulinsky and Regina Molinelli, with District Judge Philip Halpern ruling on Aug. 12 that the county ordinance violated the activists’ free speech and due process rights. 

The plaintiffs were only seeking “nominal damages” in the suit, the court noted, leading Halpern to order the $1 award. The county had already repealed the ordinance in question prior to the ruling.

Thomas More Society attorney Christopher Ferrara said in a press release that the ruling sends a “powerful message to municipalities nationwide” that “vague laws targeting pro-life speech will not stand.”

“Westchester County’s pro-life sidewalk counselors seek only to offer compassionate, life-affirming alternatives on public sidewalks — as is their First Amendment right,” he said. 

“Westchester’s arrogant overreach tried to silence their voices, but this decision helps reaffirm their constitutional freedom to share the pro-life message.”

The law firm, however, noted that it would appeal an earlier court ruling that upheld parts of the law that forbid so-called “following-and-harassing” behavior.

Rules regarding conduct outside of abortion clinics have become legal flashpoints in the abortion debate around the U.S. and internationally in recent years. 

The Supreme Court earlier this year refused to hear a case involving a “buffer zone” around abortion clinics in Carbondale, Illinois. That rule criminalizes approaching within eight feet of another person without his or her consent for purposes of protest, education, or counseling within 100 feet of a health care facility.

In 2023 a Washington state county judge ordered a pro-life group to pay nearly $1 million to Planned Parenthood for gathering and praying outside of one of its abortion clinics. 

Earlier this month, a 28-year-old man was found guilty of assaulting two elderly pro-life activists in front of a Planned Parenthood facility in Baltimore, though the perpetrator was sentenced to just one year of home detention. 

Last year, meanwhile, a national “buffer zone” law went into effect across England and Wales barring protests outside abortion facilities. Officials stipulated that silently praying outside of abortion clinics is “not necessarily” a crime under the new rules.

Father Charles Gallagher, pastor of Immaculate Conception Catholic Church in Washington, D.C., with Auxiliary Bishop Juan R. Esposito-Garcia at the blessing of the Frassati Chapel on Aug. 9, 2025. / Credit: Steve and Bernadette Dalgetty

Washington D.C., Aug 20, 2025 / 06:00 am (CNA).

After years of planning, Immaculate Conception Catholic Church in Washington, D.C., officially opened its new Frassati Chapel earlier this month. Members of the parish say they hope it will help galvanize Catholics to make perpetual adoration possible in the city. 

The chapel was blessed on Aug. 9 by Bishop Juan R. Esposito-Garcia, auxiliary bishop for the Archdiocese of Washington.

Named after the soon-to-be canonized Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati — who was known to spend hours throughout the night in adoration — the Frassati Chapel will serve as a place for Catholics in the District to pray throughout the day and to attend Eucharistic adoration at designated times throughout the week. 

As of yet, no parish in Washington, D.C., offers perpetual adoration, but Immaculate Conception’s pastor, Father Charles Gallagher, said he hopes Catholics in the city will band together to change the tide. 

A place for people in the capital to pray before the Blessed Sacrament  

Located on the ground floor of a building one block from the church, the Frassati Chapel has just enough room for the tabernacle, a handful of chairs, and a kneeler. A portrait of Frassati hangs on the wall alongside a relic of his clothes.

“I thought it would be really cool to have a little chapel in the place with an outside-access door so that people could just come and go,” Gallagher said, noting the idea came to him while in conversation with some of the young adults in the parish. “Everyone was thrilled with the idea.”

“I think this really can fill what I believe is a real need in the capital city here, where there is no perpetual adoration,” he said, explaining that most churches in the archdiocese only offer a few hours per day.

Gallagher pointed out that while many Catholics, himself included, grew up with perpetual adoration chapels in their suburban communities, no such thing exists in D.C.

“[Adoration] has always been something very special to me,” he said. “I remember before I was in seminary, at my home parish in Hyattesville [Maryland], St. Mark’s, there was a perpetual adoration chapel.”

“When I was discerning more about whether to enter the seminary, I would go there sometimes to pray, and it just had a powerful impact on me,” he recalled. “And so that’s just been part of something just central to our own prayer life.” 

When Gallagher first arrived at Immaculate Conception eight years ago, the parish had one Holy Hour per month. He said he remembered thinking: “That’s awesome — but we can improve.” The parish has since grown its adoration times from one hour per month to three hours per week. “It’s not a ton, but it’s a significant increase, so that’s been the trajectory.” 

All adoration times at the parish are now located in the new Frassati Chapel, except for the parish’s exceedingly popular Holy Hour at 7 p.m. on Thursdays, which is regularly attended by 50 to 60 people, according to Gallagher.

“There’s a need not just to have Eucharistic exposition, which is a great blessing, but to have a place for people to pray before the Blessed Sacrament before and after work hours, basically, because there’s nothing like that,” he said.

Gallagher emphasized the particular need for such a place in D.C., where he said “there is a real temptation to worship power.”

“I think there’s just something about giving people access to just sitting before God and worshipping God has a way of just grounding people and giving them peace, but also giving them perspective,” he said. “When you walk around town, there’s these monuments that are just overwhelming; and the deals that are made here, the power brokers that live here, the major politicians. I don’t need to emphasize how crucial the city is in the world of prayers.”

‘Like an explosion of grace in the city’

Kevin J. Parker, a parishioner at Immaculate Conception since 2001, told CNA that the opening of the Frassati Chapel is “a wonderful move: both seemingly old fashioned but at the same time innovative.” A sacristan and lector at the parish, Parker has devoted the past year to researching the parish’s history from its founding in 1864 to the present.  

“Immaculate Conception,” he said, “is no stranger to innovation.” According to the retired fundraising consultant, “the first time a Mass was ever broadcast live on East Coast radio was from Immaculate Conception in 1930.” 

“It’s been a challenge getting to this point,” he said of the chapel, “but I think that a lot of us are thrilled that this is finally happening.” 

Parker added: “I think that our move to revive — or reinvigorate the practice of perpetual adoration — is something that is greatly needed, particularly in Washington where so many have seen their careers and livelihoods disappear overnight and where, I believe, we feel the weight of world events and suffering perhaps more than other places.”

“I think that the biggest challenges, frankly, are logistical and ensuring that access to the chapel is simple and safe at all hours,” he continued.

“The story of the parish is one of faith, resilience, and innovation, and the Frassati Chapel represents one more way in which our little Church is both responding to and a leader in facing some of the challenges that face us today,” he said.

Olivia Morris, 28, a parishioner of Immaculate Conception since January 2023 and a graduate student at George Washington University, has also been looking forward to the chapel opening, in particular due to her schedule. 

“I don’t operate on the 8-5 schedule like everyone else in the city so having a chapel open for me to go pray when I need it will bring untold blessings to my life,” she said. 

Morris stressed the importance of Immaculate Conception’s efforts to bring perpetual adoration to the city, declaring: “Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament being exposed perpetually will literally change the fabric of the city of Washington.” 

“The lifestyle in D.C. that tells young people to work harder and longer hours, earn more money and advance in their careers to be happy is not satisfying,” she said. “Young people are waking up to that lie and are very aware of their thirst for something deeper. That is why we are seeing so many young people convert to Catholicism or return to the Church after years of being away … I am convinced that we would see more peace in the city, more conversions of hearts, and just an all around better D.C. if we had perpetual adoration.” 

Echoing Morris, another parishioner, Taylor Dockery, 28, told CNA: “Perpetual adoration would serve a tremendous benefit to the spiritual health of our city. The collective sacrifice it would require, in a city where so many pack their schedule, would be a powerful and visible testament to the Catholic faith.”

An Immaculate Conception parishioner since 2023, Dockery expressed the importance of adoration in his life as “an intentional pause” outside Sunday Mass. “I am excited!” he said of the chapel’s opening. “I know there’s been years of prayer and work to bring it to completion.”

A federal district court in California ordered the Oakland Unified School district to grant equal access of school facilities to a Christian club. / Credit: zimmytws/Shutterstock

CNA Staff, Aug 19, 2025 / 12:35 pm (CNA).

A federal district court has ordered that a California school district must grant a Christian children’s club equal access to school facilities, arguing that the denial of that access violates the club’s free speech rights.

The Oakland Unified School District (OUSD) will be required to provide “equal access to available spaces and benefits” to the group Child Evangelism Fellowship of NorCal, District Judge Haywood Gilliam Jr. said in an Aug. 15 ruling.

The court order found that the school district apparently engaged in “viewpoint discrimination” in violation of the U.S. Constitution when it barred the group from after-school use of campus facilities.

The district had argued that the Christian group did not meet the administrative requirements to be allowed access to school space and that allowing the group on campus could constitute a violation of the Constitution’s establishment clause, which forbids government favoring of religion.

The school district’s arguments were “remarkably short on caselaw,” Gilliam noted, while court precedent “clearly favor[s]” the Christian group’s position.

The court order said the district was forbidden from enforcing rules “in any manner that denies [the Christian group] access to OUSD facilities on an equal basis to the access provided to similarly situated nonprofit organizations.”

The evangelical organization was represented in its bid by the legal group Liberty Counsel. Group founder Mat Staver described the decision as a “great victory.”

“Child Evangelism Fellowship gives children a biblically-based education that includes moral and character development,” he said. “Good News Clubs should be in every public elementary school.”

Gilliam in his order directed the school district and the Christian group to present a jointly-agreed-upon plan to implement the ruling by Sept. 16.

The judge said the court would determine “what if any additional language is needed” to ensure the ruling is carried out.

Pope Leo XIV greets the faithful gathered in St. Peter’s Square from the popemobile during his Wednesday general audience on Aug. 6, 2025. / Credit: Daniel Ibañez/CNA

National Catholic Register, Aug 19, 2025 / 11:51 am (CNA).

Ever since his brother was named pope, John Prevost hasn’t been shy about talking to the press. Pope Leo XIV’s first phone call with his brother went viral after a reporter captured it on video (“Why don’t you answer the phone,” the newly elected pontiff had snapped at his brother in a highly relatable sibling interaction captured for posterity). 

Now, in a wide-ranging, half-hour interview with NBC’s Chicago affiliate that aired over the weekend, the 70-year-old retired high school principal opened up again. 

Here are some highlights from their talk:

Prevost still speaks with his brother every day.

Yes, they still talk on the phone each day, and they still play “Wordle” and “Words With Friends” together, Prevost told NBC’s Mary Ann Ahern.

“I usually now ask him, ‘Who did you meet famous?’ to see who came to see him because he’s always with audiences,” Prevost said.

The two haven’t lost their taste for gentle sibling ribbing. 

When asked if he says, “Hey, Bob” or “Hi, Pope,” when they get on the phone, Prevost said they often joke about that. 

Sometimes, Prevost said, he will ask: “Is this [His] Holiness?” to which the pope responds: “Yes, my child, how may I help you.”

Pope Leo enjoys going to Castel Gandolfo, the papal summer residence near Rome.

The Holy Father resumed the tradition of going to Castel Gandolfo, which had been on pause during Francis’ papacy. 

“He’s going to make it a permanent thing. He’s spent two weeks there and now he has been back already one more time and they’re going to try to do it more often because it just is relaxing and away from the crowd — away from the grind, so to speak,” Prevost said.

“There really is an opportunity to relax, and he doesn’t have to be dressed in his papal outfit all the time.”

The pope is apparently taking advantage of the swimming pool and tennis courts at Castel Gandolfo.

Prevost didn’t explicitly say his brother is working on his backhand and swimming laps, but he did say that he is “making use” of the facilities there.

Pope Leo misses driving.

The pope, he said, is not particular about where he likes to go on vacation if he can get behind the wheel.

“I think he likes anything. I think he likes the mountains. I think he likes the shore, so long as he has an opportunity to drive. Driving to him is totally relaxing,” Prevost said.

In the past, when they would get together, Prevost always let his younger brother drive.

“Otherwise, then he would criticize my driving,” he said.

Not being able to drive anymore “bothers him,” his brother said. 

Pope Leo really did eat that pizza.

When the pope stepped off his popemobile to receive a gift of a pizza from Aurelio’s, one of his favorite Chicago pizzerias, he ate the whole thing. And it was sausage.

“He did take it. His bodyguards took it from him to make sure it was safe. He did reheat it. He did eat every bit of it,” his brother told NBC.

His favorite kind of pizza? Pepperoni.

As children, the Prevost brothers did “everything any child would do.”

“It was in the days when you just went out and played,” he said. “Everyone met on the street. Do whatever you’re going to do. Go ride your bikes, go play baseball, four-square. We just did that with all the neighborhood kids.”

The boys, however, were not allowed to go out trick-or-treating on Halloween as children.

“My mom thought it was begging,” Prevost said.

His brother was “very close” to Pope Francis.

“He was close with Francis. Very close. They were very good friends,” he said.

The pope promised he would return to Chicago for one reason.

When asked whether the pope was planning to return to his hometown, Prevost said “anything’s likely” since he is, of course, the pope.

“The only thing we know for sure is he’s going to be here for my funeral,” he said.

Prevost said he asked his younger brother if he would return under those circumstances, and he reportedly responded: “They may have to keep the body on ice for a while, but I’ll get there.”

The pope’s favorite candy is not what you’d expect.

When asked what he plans to bring his brother when he travels to Rome in October (along with several members of his extended family), Prevost said: “Peeps.”

“That’s his favorite candy on Earth.”

The pope was the handy one in the family.

His brother told NBC that the family would save certain household chores for their younger brother.

“I used to have to say, ‘Well, I’ll save this for when Rob’s here because he’ll take care of it.’

“Anything on a ladder, I don’t do, but he will,” he said.

Pope Leo likes upbeat movies.

When asked which kind of movies his brother likes, Prevost said: “I think things that are generally entertaining that have a positive outcome.”

Before he was pope, Leo might have enjoyed a John Grisham novel.

“He liked legal thrillers,” his brother said.

Pope Leo warned his brother to be careful about what he says in interviews.

Prevost was accompanied by Augustinian Father Ray Flores during his interview with the NBC station.

When asked if his brother, the pope, asks him to “be careful,” Prevost said that he does.

“Yes, absolutely,” he said. “That’s why this gentleman is here.”

The pope is praying for us.

Prevost said: “I think what people don’t know is he’s taking this very seriously. It may not look that way when you see him enjoying himself, but this is quite a burden on his shoulders and he’s praying for the world.”

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

The Catholic bishops are backing a suit by a coalition of Apache Stronghold, a coalition of Native Americans and their supporters, in their lawsuit against the federal government. The lawsuit argues that their freedom of religion was violated when the federal government announced its intention to sell formerly protected land in Arizona to a mining company. / Credit: Photo courtesy of Becket

CNA Staff, Aug 19, 2025 / 10:34 am (CNA).

A federally protected Arizona site that has been the location of Native American religious rituals for centuries is temporarily blocked from sale to a copper mining company as legal disputes over the transfer continue to play out in federal court.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit said in a brief ruling on Aug. 18 that the Oak Flat site in Pinal County would not be transferred to Resolution Copper, a British-Australian multinational company, while emergency petitions against the sale are considered by federal judges. The transfer was set to take place Tuesday.

The three-judge panel said it took “no position on the merits of the motions” to halt the sale but that it was expediting the court schedule of the appeals. Briefs in the case will be due starting Sept. 8, the ruling said.

The 11th-hour block comes as what could be the last reprieve for a coalition of Native Americans and other advocates who have worked to halt the Oak Flat site’s transfer to the multinational mining company.

The nearly 7-square-mile Oak Flat parcel in the Tonto National Forest has been viewed as a sacred site by Apaches and other Native American groups for hundreds of years and has been used extensively for religious rituals.

The yearslong effort to stop the sale, led by the coalition group Apache Stronghold, has received backing from a broad swath of religious liberty advocates, including the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and the Knights of Columbus, who have argued that federal religious freedom law prohibits the sale of the site to the mining company. 

For decades the federal government protected it from development, but the Obama administration in 2014 began the process of transferring the land to Resolution Copper, whose mining activities will largely obliterate the site.

In May of this year the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal from Apache Stronghold regarding the transfer. Justice Neil Gorsuch at the time argued that the high court “should at least have troubled itself to hear [the] case” before “allowing the government to destroy the Apaches’ sacred site.”

Maria Dadgar, the executive director of the Inter Tribal Association of Arizona, told the Arizona Republic after the Aug. 18 ruling that Native American groups “have been on these lands now called Arizona since time immemorial.”

“We are hopeful with the news from the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals and welcome the opportunity to make our case for the continued protection of Oak Flat,” she said.

Apache Stronghold founder Wendsler Nosie said in a statement to CNA on Tuesday that the group was “deeply grateful” for the appeals court’s block.

“This decision is a vital step in protecting our spiritual lifeblood and religious traditions from destruction,” he said. “While the fight is far from over, this ruling gives us hope and time to continue our battle in the courts and to persuade the Trump administration to protect Oak Flat as a sacred place for future generations.”

Father Ralph O’Donnell, bishop-elect of Jefferson City, Missouri. / Credit: Diocese of Jefferson City website

Vatican City, Aug 19, 2025 / 06:00 am (CNA).

Pope Leo XIV has named Father Ralph O’Donnell of the Archdiocese of Omaha, Nebraska, as the new bishop of Jefferson City, Missouri. He will succeed Archbishop Shawn McKnight, who in May was installed as archbishop of Kansas City, Kansas.

Bishop-elect O’Donnell has most recently served as pastor of St. Margaret Mary Parish in Omaha.

Born on Aug. 31, 1969, in Omaha, he earned a bachelor’s degree in religious studies from Conception Seminary College and a master of divinity degree from the University of St. Mary of the Lake/Mundelein Seminary. He later obtained a master’s degree in spirituality from Creighton University.

Ordained a priest in 1997, O’Donnell has served in various pastoral and administrative roles, including vocations director, seminary vice rector, and executive director of the U.S. bishops’ Secretariat for Clergy, Consecrated Life, and Vocations (2015–2019).

null / Credit: UVgreen/Shutterstock

Philadelphia, Pa., Aug 19, 2025 / 06:00 am (CNA).

Aurora Pomales still remembers the feelings after her grandmother died.

The grief was real and disorienting. After all, it was her grandmother who had taught her how to pray, how to love the Mass, and how to be Catholic, even after she herself had pulled away from the Church.

“I remember waking up and thinking, OK,” Pomales said. “I need to go to confession today. I need to start praying my rosary. I need to start going to Mass.”

That quiet decision marked the beginning of her return to the Catholic faith — a process that would eventually lead her to create a ministry aimed at serving an often-overlooked population: single Catholic women.

Blessed Emilina, the ministry Pomales founded, is named after a little-known 12th-century French saint, Emilina of Boulancourt, who is the patroness of single Catholic laywomen. The ministry was created specifically for women who are single, not married or engaged, not in religious life, but who are nonetheless striving to live fully for Christ.

Pomales’ inspiration came from her lived experience. As a single woman trying to return to the Church, she began looking for community — but everything she found seemed to be for wives, moms, or women preparing for marriage.

“I felt like I didn’t see myself anywhere,” she said. “I was trying to grow closer to God, but it was lonely.”

This was reinforced when she joined an online Catholic group and suggested creating content for single women. The group’s founder replied: “Well, what would content for single women even look like?”

“That’s when it clicked for me,” Pomales said. “I wasn’t just feeling lonely — I felt like no one even wanted to make space for us.”

Rather than walk away, she stepped forward on a mission based on her lived experience.

From heartbreak to healing

Pomales’ return to the Church wasn’t immediate or easy. At the time of her grandmother’s death in 2020, she was in a serious romantic relationship — one that didn’t align with her deepening desire for Christ.

“I thought that was going to be my forever relationship,” she said. “But I felt pulled in two directions: Stay in this relationship that’s pulling me away from the Lord, or leave it and walk with Jesus.”

She chose Christ. But the cost was real.

“While I was happy to be back in the Church, it was very lonely,” Pomales said.

It was the foundation from her grandmother, though, that made it possible to embark on this new path, she said. That foundation and the questions it stirred led her to begin dreaming of something more — something that could serve women like her.

“I knew other women were out there who might not have had that foundation, and if they didn’t feel welcome, they might just walk away,” she said.

The turning point came when the parochial vicar at her parish, St. Helena in Philadelphia, encouraged her to attend the Given Forum, a national leadership conference for young Catholic women.

Soon after, she began developing the blueprint for Blessed Emilina. The saintly woman had once been rejected by a religious order but continued to live a holy, single life of deep prayer and penance. Emilina walked barefoot in the snow, offered her suffering for the Church, and became known for her gift of prophecy.

“I’m obsessed with her now,” Pomales said with a laugh. “She’s kind of everything I want to be. She made the most of her singleness — not as a backup plan, but as a calling.”

The Blessed Emilina group offers retreats, monthly gatherings, local pilgrimages, and simple events like “paint and sip” nights. The ministry is open to single Catholic women of all ages and walks of life.

“Too often, we’re alone, so the idea of Blessed Emilina is to help women realize that your singlehood can be your path to sainthood,” Pomales said.

A quiet witness, a growing movement

Pomales’ sister Jeannine Days said she has watched her younger sibling grow from a quiet, imaginative child into a confident woman unafraid to lead.

“She was always very shy, very smart. And now she’s just blossomed,” Days said. “She’s nurturing, gentle, honest — and passionate. She really loves the Lord, and she wants to bring others to him.”

Days, who has children of her own, said Pomales brings hope not only to the women in her ministry but also to their family as well.

“My daughters look up to her, and the women in Blessed Emilina — you can see the spark that happens between them,” Days said. “That moment when they realize, ‘I’m not alone.’ That’s the Holy Spirit.”

A future for the Church — and for hope

Pomales dreams of taking Blessed Emilina nationwide and even international.

“I think the future of the Church lies in the capable hands of single Catholic women,” she said. “We have time. We have energy. We can serve.”

But more than that, she wants women to know that being single is a not consolation prize.

“There’s so much rhetoric around what a Catholic woman should be — married with lots of children, or in a convent,” she said. “But there are women who don’t fit that, and we need to stop making them feel like they’re failing.”

She remembers one moment early in her journey, scrolling through a Catholic women’s forum, when she saw a post from a single woman in her 30s.

“She wrote, ‘I just need someone to tell me I’m not failing as a Catholic woman.’ And I thought, this is why I’m doing this. That shouldn’t feel like failure.”

Through Blessed Emilina, she wants women to know that their singleness isn’t just valid, it’s sacred — and an opportunity. “This is the time when we can be closest to the Lord, and you have that time to give to your community,” she said.

Pomales also hopes her story of starting a new organization will inspire others to take risks and find their way.

“This experience has taught me that in those moments where you feel like you don’t belong, that’s actually the Lord calling you to make that space for people like you,” she said.

For more information, contact Aurora Pomales at blessedemilina@gmail.com or on Facebook.

This story was first published by Catholic Philly and has been reprinted by CNA with permission. It is part of “Faces of Hope,” a series of stories and videos from the Archdiocese of Philadelphia “highlighting the work of those who make the Catholic Church in Philadelphia the greatest force for good in the region.” 

A mosque in Kabul, Afghanistan, in 2024. / Credit: eyetravelphotos/Shutterstock

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Aug 18, 2025 / 16:04 pm (CNA).

The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) has released a report examining the religious liberty implications for women and minorities in Afghanistan four years after the Taliban’s takeover. 

“Religious freedom conditions in Afghanistan continue to decline dramatically under Taliban rule,” the USCIRF wrote in an Aug. 15 report examining the Taliban’s Law on the Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice one year after its enactment. “The new morality law reinforces a systematic and overt erasure of religious freedom in Afghanistan and facilitates the ongoing repression of religious minorities.”

According to the USCIRF, the morality law “impacts all Afghans” but “disproportionately affects religious minorities and women, eradicating their participation in public life and systematically eliminating their right to [freedom of religious belief].”

The August 2024 law contains 35 articles and centers on mandating the Taliban’s interpretation of Islam and sharia law. Authorities are granted “broad powers to arrest, detain, and monitor Afghans who are perceived to have violated its provisions,” the USCIRF noted.

Among the 35 articles is the criminalization of adherence to any religion apart from Sunni Islam. According to the USCIRF: “Non-Muslims are forced to practice in secret or risk arrest and torture.”

The report quoted the Taliban’s minister for the propagation of virtue and prevention of vice, Khalid Hanafi, as saying Hindus, Jews, Christians, and Sikhs are “worse than four-legged animals” for holding “beliefs that go against sharia and the Quran.”

All Afghan women — Muslim or otherwise — under the morality law are mandated to cover their entire body and face. They are also barred from leaving their homes without a male guardian. The law “characterizes women’s voices as intimate and therefore something to be concealed.” As such, Afghan women are barred in public from speaking, singing, or reciting the Quran. 

“While the morality law impacts all Afghans, it disproportionately affects Afghan women and girls. As of 2025, Afghan women and girls are still barred from attending school beyond age 12. The education ban, coupled with the morality law, makes it impossible for Afghan women and girls to participate in public life, including religious expression,” the report stated. 

“The requirement of a male guardian, reinforced under the morality law, has created significant barriers for Afghan women,” the report continued, noting that Afghan widows who may not have any male relatives are especially impacted.  

The Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, which was reestablished for societal reform shortly after the Taliban took over in 2021, oversees all enforcement of the Taliban’s morality law.

According to USCIRF, there are approximately 3,330 male enforcers employed in 28 of the 34 provinces of Afghanistan.

Heightened surveillance, arbitrary arrests and detention, forced conversions, physical assault, death threats, and torture are used as tactics by enforcers across the country, the USCIRF stated, citing a U.N. report that as many as 50 Ismaili Muslims were forced to convert to Sunni Islam and that one Ismaili man was killed in the Badakhshan Province.

The man “was severely tortured prior to his death,” the USCIRF said, further noting that “while in Taliban custody, individuals’ ethnic or religious identity influenced the severity of torture inflicted, including for Christians and Hazaras.”

Members of the Catholic nonprofit Strangers No Longer and others march to the Detroit ICE headquarters in July 2025. / Credit: Tom Tomala, Strangers No Longer

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Aug 18, 2025 / 14:34 pm (CNA).

Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Detroit Field Office recently met with a Catholic migrant aid group and a Democratic lawmaker to discuss questions about whether ICE is prioritizing deporting violent criminals and concerns about agents wearing masks during raids.

Acting field office director for Detroit ICE, Kevin Raycraft, and other ICE officials invited Catholics — including leaders of the nonprofit Strangers No Longer — to the Detroit headquarters on Aug. 12 after Rep. Shri Thanedar, D-Michigan, intervened to secure a meeting.

Strangers No Longer first requested the meeting in July by marching from Most Holy Trinity Catholic Church to the ICE headquarters with several hundred demonstrators, many of whom were Catholic. The leaders had hoped to meet with Raycraft and deliver a letter outlining their concerns.

Thanedar told CNA the leaders “weren’t allowed to enter the ICE facility” in July and “that letter was not accepted by ICE” at the time. 

Thanedar was later able to arrange the August meeting, which included a priest, several nuns, and leaders of Strangers No Longer, who presented their letter and spoke with ICE agents for about an hour.

In its letter, the group expressed concerns about “face masks and the lack of identification” by agents during raids, along with “actions carried out without a federal warrant.” The group also alleged a lack of “communication with local law enforcement” before operations are carried out.

Strangers No Longer further criticized “the arrest of individuals who have committed no felony” and alleged that ICE “appears to be targeting men for incarceration and expedited removal, leaving women and children (many of whom are U.S. citizens) behind to ‘fend for themselves.’”

“This pattern of separating families is having a devastating impact on those left behind,” the letter added.

Victoria Kovari, one of the organizers of the July demonstration who attended the meeting, told CNA that the agents “were very respectful” and listened to “these stories … [about] how it’s impacting our community” but did not give any indication they would make any adjustments to immigration enforcement.

“We wanted this to be a dialogue,” Kovari said. “We wanted them to understand us and we want to understand them.”

Kovari said she spoke to ICE about cases in which agents arrived in unmarked vehicles wearing masks and carrying rifles to arrest people who “hadn’t committed any violent felonies.” She also spoke about parishioners who hadn’t committed any felonies “being picked up” by ICE for deportation.

“We really hope that they focus these [enforcement] priorities on the more difficult cases of gang members, drug cartel [members], drug dealers, violent offenders, and [work] with our local law enforcement,” she added.

“That’s what would really help our communities,” Kovari said.

Thanedar similarly told CNA the ICE agents “listened to us” and offered to help connect Strangers No Longer with some detainees, but that there was no indication they would make policy changes.

“Their response remained that these people — anybody that has broken the law — [ICE] will go after, and they were not willing to commit to prioritizing the hardened criminals and the people who are gang members, like the president has said,” he continued.

“What we are seeing lately is ICE is focusing more on migrants that have been working 20 years in the hospitality industry, working as cooks, doing landscaping, [and doing] work that makes our lives better,” Thanedar alleged.

Kovari added that Raycraft told the organization that many criticisms of ICE are based on “media manipulation,” which she said made the conversation more difficult.

CNA reached out to Detroit ICE, the national ICE headquarters, and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security for comment but did receive a response by the time of publication.

In a July 22 op-ed in the Detroit News, three weeks before the meeting, Raycraft addressed some of the concerns raised in the Strangers No Longer letter.

Raycraft said agents “identify themselves with visible markings, badges, or other identifiers” but “do not wear uniforms or drive marked vehicles.” He contested that assaults on agents have increased by about 830% and “our officers wear masks to protect their families.”

The op-ed states that agents follow the law when making arrests. He said the law allows for “the issuance of warrants upon a finding of probable cause that someone is [unlawfully] present” and works with courts to obtain warrants for other criminal matters. It adds that agents do not need to display the warrants.

Raycraft also said that ICE “routinely coordinates with local law enforcement agencies” and that they “know where to reach us … if there is an issue regarding communication.”