Actress Noa Cohen as the Blessed Virgin Mary in Netflix’s new film “Mary.” / Credit: Netflix

CNA Staff, Dec 13, 2024 / 07:00 am (CNA).

A new movie from Netflix about the Blessed Virgin Mary has received mixed reviews, with some Catholics on social media criticizing the film’s depiction of Mary and the kind of relationship she had with Joseph. 

“There’s always going to be criticisms, no matter what kind of movie you make, but if you do it all for the right reasons, which we did, then to me that takes care of itself,” the film’s director, D.J. Caruso, a Catholic, told CNA in an interview. 

According to Caruso, every decision made was done to “make the best possible movie” and “to pay great reverence to this amazing woman and her life.”

Netflix’s “Mary” was released on the digital streaming platform Dec. 6. It is considered a coming-of-age biblical epic and portrays Mary’s experience after her miraculous conception of Jesus and her journey on the run from King Herod.

Remaining true to the Scriptures was at the “foundation” of creating the film, Caruso said. The script went through 74 drafts and received input from Catholic, Jewish, and Muslim religious leaders, including the late Auxiliary Bishop David G. O’Connell of Los Angeles, who served as Caruso’s spiritual adviser.

One memory the Catholic director holds close to his heart is a conversation he had with O’Connell about the script and the bishop told him: “Please, give Joseph a voice … Joseph was a hero and we never see Joseph as a hero.” 

“So, I promised him that I would make Joseph that,” Caruso shared.

Another aspect Caruso wanted to focus on was the humanity of Mary, which also played a role in inspiring the creation of the film.

“I always felt, particularly by the younger audience or the younger faith-based group, that there’s a great appreciation for the Holy Mother and everything she is — this great, iconic, beautiful woman,” he said. “But what was it like when she was a young woman and this was all happening? To use her as our anchor and to see this all happening through her eyes and the humanity she had … It just to me felt like it was the most compelling way to tell the story.”

As a father to a young daughter, Caruso thought: “Wouldn’t it be great if a 17-year-old saw this movie and went like, ‘Mary is cool. Not only do I love her but she’s so cool.’”

Caruso believes portraying the human side to divine figures as well as holy figures, such as the Blessed Mother, “makes them endearing, it makes them relatable.”

“There’s a great reverence paid to them, but at the same time, in that reverence, you never got to see the struggles or what was it like and in order for me to do this what’s it going to cost? It takes great courage and great sacrifice to do something amazing the way Mary did,” he explained. 

“And what about the human side of her and the decisions she had to make? It really makes a character relatable and it makes you understand their plight more and it brings you closer to them when it’s done well … I wanted to bring out a human element in Mary.” 

Caruso shared that throughout his career his faith has “played a large role because it is who I am, so it’s always going to sort of show up.”

“Even if it’s not necessarily a religious story, I’ve always infused it and sort of celebrated God’s unconditional love,” he said. 

While making this film, Mary’s “fiat” and her acceptance of God’s will impacted Caruso personally. He pointed out the “bizarre disarray” society is currently in and the need for each of us to make the right choices.

“Whether we’re young, older, we have to make choices — is man’s nature going to be driving me and all this kind of stuff or is God’s grace going to be my guidance?” 

Reflecting on Mary’s powerful words, “Let it be done to me according to your word,” Caruso said: “If we can take that into our heart and if that could be the message that’s getting around this Christmas, as Catholics, we have to make that choice to say, ‘I will give it to you and I will surrender, and I’m going to put it in your hands.’ I think that’s a really important message.”

The city of Concord, New Hampshire, which is the state capital, issued a permit for a Satanic display, pictured here before it was reportedly vandalized. / Credit: NH Journal

Boston, Mass., Dec 12, 2024 / 18:20 pm (CNA).

A Satanic display erected near a Christmas Nativity scene on city property near the New Hampshire State House has been removed after sustaining damage in multiple attacks. 

It wasn’t clear mid-week whether organizers will erect a similar display again. 

“I think they probably should because I think the vandalism and the hatefulness shouldn’t go without a response. But it’s up to them,” said state Rep. Ellen Read, a Democrat from Newmarket. 

Read told CNA she came up with the idea for the Satanic display at City Plaza so that the yearly Christmas scene put up by a local council of the Knights of Columbus wouldn’t be the only display there this month. She said she contacted the Satanic Temple, an organization headquartered in Salem, Massachusetts, with affiliates in New Hampshire and elsewhere that says on its website it does not “believe in the existence of Satan or the supernatural,” to put the idea in motion. 

The display, which centered on a black statue of a pagan god, was initially attacked Saturday night shortly after it was erected while organizers were eating dinner across the street after the ceremony, she said.

Read said she believes it was attacked at least twice after that, leaving the statue in pieces and the marble base cracked. The remnants of the display were removed Tuesday, three days after it went up. 

The city of Concord, which is the state capital, issued a permit for the Satanic display. But the mayor said earlier this week that while he disapproves of vandalism he also wishes city officials hadn’t issued a permit for the display. 

“I opposed the permit because I believe the request was made not in the interest of promoting religious equity but in order to drive an anti-religious political agenda, and because I do not respond well to legal extortion, the threat of litigation,” said Byron Champlin, mayor of Concord, during a city council meeting Monday night. 

“Some on social media have celebrated the Satanic Temple’s display as a victory for religious pluralism and a reflection of our growing diversity as a community. I disagree with this. This is about an out-of-state organization cynically promoting its national agenda at the expense of the Concord community,” said Champlin, a Democrat. 

Black goat head 

On Saturday night people associated with the Satanic Temple unveiled a black goat-headed statue representing the pagan god Baphomet with a blue stole around its shoulders similar to what Catholic priests and clerics in certain other Christian denominations wear. 

In its right hand, as shown in a Facebook video, was the state flower of New Hampshire, lilacs; and its left hand was an apple, which some take to be a reference to the fall of Adam and Eve in the Book of Genesis. An individual present at the event said the apple “reminds us of our quest for knowledge, defiance in the face of arbitrary authority, and our commitment to self-determination.” 

The base of the statue included what the Satanic Temple calls its seven tenets, which include calls for “compassion,” “empathy,” “reason,” and “freedom” as well as autonomy. 

“One’s body is inviolable, subject to one’s own will alone,” one of the tenets states. 

Read said the Satanic Temple is a religion and that expressing its belief system is protected by the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. 

“The people who believe in the Satanic Temple deeply believe in these tenets. I think it’s the narrow-mindedness of the mayor, who can’t seem to wrap his head around that this represents a large percentage of the community and its beliefs,” Read told CNA by telephone. 

Asked whether the pagan statue is a parody of Christianity, Read said it isn’t. 

“Most people walking by realize that this is not an attack on Christianity, just as most people walking by the Nativity scene realize it’s not an attack on non-Christians. In both cases, it’s people expressing their beliefs, as is their First Amendment right,” Read said. 

Read told CNA she is a member of the Satanic Temple but not active in it. She said she signed up online some time ago because she was attracted by its tenets but that she has never attended any of the organization’s events. 

She said she was raised as a nondenominational Christian and took steps as an adult to become an ordained minister in the United Methodist Church but that uncharitable behavior by some Christians in her congregation and the wider society led her to leave Christianity about eight years ago. 

Even so, she said, “I still consider myself a practical follower of Christ’s teachings.” 

Read said she does not believe that Satan exists, which aligns with what the Satanic Temple says in published statements — although its ministers on Saturday night ended their remarks by saying “Hail Satan.” 

Christians do believe Satan exists, citing various verses in the Bible, including Zechariah 3:1-4, Matthew 13:36-40, and Ephesians 6:10-12, among others. Jesus identifies Satan as “a liar and the father of lies” in John 8:44, and he says “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven” in Luke 10:18. The Book of Revelation says Satan “was thrown down to earth” during a war in heaven between the angels who followed God and the angels who rejected God (Rev 12:7-12). 

Read, explaining what attracts people to Satanism, said people who feel rejected or repelled by Christianity, which they equate with power in American society, like the symbolism of doing the opposite. 

“Some people are so hurt that symbols of the adversary — that’s what Satan means, ‘the adversary’ — speak to them, because symbols of rebellion against that power demonstrate to them that someone has their back,” Read said. 

Grinch? 

Concord is a city of about 45,000 in central New Hampshire. 

Read, one of the state’s 400 state representatives, lives in Newmarket, about 30 miles east by southeast of Concord. The mayor of Concord said he isn’t pleased that someone who doesn’t live in the city helped bring about the display. 

He also suggested that the stated principles of the Satanic Temple mask what the organization is actually about. 

“Its seven tenets, many of them commendable, are really a smoke screen to provide an air of legitimacy for its deliberately provocative and disturbing effigy,” Champlin said. “In fact, considering its impact on Concord’s holiday spirit, I think a more appropriate choice of effigy for the satanic devil would have been the Grinch.” 

The city issued a permit for the Knights of Columbus Nativity scene on Nov. 29. The permit for the Satanic Temple display was issued Dec. 7, according to public documents obtained by CNA. 

Both permits expire Dec. 28.

Archbishop Timothy Broglio speaks with Rep. Nancy Pelosi after a Mass held at the U.S. Capitol on Dec. 12, 2024, the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe. / Credit: Migi Fabara/CNA

Washington D.C., Dec 12, 2024 / 17:30 pm (CNA).

Catholic members of Congress and staff gathered inside the U.S. Capitol this morning for a rare event — the celebration of a Mass in honor of the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe. 

Archbishop Timothy Broglio, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) and head of the Archdiocese for the Military Services, USA, celebrated the liturgy. 

“It’s been a desire for a long time to have Mass at the Capitol for the Catholics who are here,” Broglio told CNA. “And of course, celebrating Our Lady of Guadalupe was particularly significant, I think, because she’s the patroness of the whole continent.”

The archbishop called it “an opportunity to really pray as one and to pray also for the work that happens here.”

The Thomas More Society organized a Mass at the Capitol in Statuary Hall on Easter Sunday 2023. In January of this year, a Latin Mass was celebrated inside the Capitol on the anniversary of an FBI memo targeting traditional Catholics. The Washington Archdiocese later told CNA that the organizers of the event had failed to gain permission to celebrate the old Mass as required by its liturgical guidelines and Traditione Custodes, an apostolic letter issued by Pope Francis in 2021. 

About 30 members of Congress and congressional staff attended the Mass Thursday, including New Jersey Rep. Chris Smith, who told CNA that “to have [Broglio] celebrate Mass was a true blessing for all of us who were here, and for this place as well.” 

Smith told CNA he has a life-sized replica of the tilma of Our Lady of Guadalupe hanging in his office. “I’m amazed at how many people I meet — because I meet with diplomats all the time because of my human rights work and my committee assignments — they always take note of [the tilma].”

“I find there’s such devotion, particularly with the Latin Americans who come in — they look at [the tilma] and it’s instant,” he said. “And so this is, of course, a celebration of her, [and] the whole story of Juan Diego, and the whole story of, you know, 8-9 million people converting from human sacrifice and worshipping gods is such an amazing story of conversion and repair of souls.”

“And so,” Smith said, his office “places all of our pro-life and human rights work under her mantle.”

“I do a lot on the human rights issue,” he said, “and every bit of it, we turn to her and pray, you know, and ask her for guidance.” Smith and his wife also share a personal devotion to Our Lady of Guadalupe.

After the Mass had ended, a representative from former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office, Jacob Trauberman, approached Broglio to inform the archbishop that Pelosi was coming to “say hello” and that she had also wished to “receive Communion.” 

Broglio agreed to meet with Pelosi but did not give her Communion. 

Michelle Gress, executive director at the office of government relations at the USCCB, told CNA that Broglio declined Pelosi’s request as the Mass had already ended and they “didn’t consecrate extra Hosts.” 

When Pelosi did arrive, she greeted Broglio warmly, saying: “I’ve heard so many wonderful things about you.” The two shared a friendly conversation that touched on the recent 200th anniversary of Marquis de Lafayette’s address to Congress and the upcoming 80th anniversary of the World War II Battle of the Bulge. 

At one point in the conversation, Pelosi told Broglio: “We need to pray for peace.” 

Pelosi recently criticized Pope Francis for the Vatican’s deal with China regarding bishop appointments during an interview with the National Catholic Reporter published on Tuesday, Dec. 10.

In her interview with the Reporter, Pelosi also spoke about a wide variety of other issues, which included the decline of Catholic support for the Democratic Party in the 2024 elections and her feuds with Catholic bishops over her adamant support of abortion.

Although her bishop, Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone of San Francisco, prohibited her from receiving Communion within the archdiocese because of her support for abortion, Pelosi told the Reporter that she “received Communion anyway” and said: “That’s his problem, not mine.” 

null / Credit: BUTENKOV ALEKSEI/Shutterstock

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

Euthanasia continues to be a major driver of deaths in Canada, with the latest government figures showing another double-digit increase in Canadian citizens opting to end their lives under the country’s national suicide law.

Health Canada’s fifth annual medical assistance in dying (MAID) report, released on Wednesday, reveals that MAID accounted for nearly 1 in 20 deaths in the country last year.

Government statistics indicated that 15,343 people were euthanized by medical officials in Canada in 2023, out of a total of just under 20,000 requests. Those numbers represent “an increase of 15.8%” over 2022, the report says, a drop from an average annual growth rate of about 31%.

Though the growth rate declined, it is “not yet possible to make reliable conclusions about whether or not these findings represent a stabilization of growth rates over the longer term,” the report said.

“An increased awareness of MAID within the care continuum, population aging, and the associated patterns of illness or disease, personal beliefs, and societal acceptance, as well as the availability of practitioners who provide MAID, may all influence the rate of provisions,” it noted.

The “vast majority” of euthanasia incidents detailed in the most recent report, about 95%, were administered to individuals classified as “Track 1,” whose natural death is “reasonably foreseeable” due to a medical condition.

More than half of those individuals were over 75 years old, with cancer as the “most frequently reported underlying medical condition.”

The most common underlying medical conditions afflicting the remaining victims under “Track 2” included neurological conditions as well as other medical issues such as diabetes, “frailty,” and chronic pain.

Canadian Minister of Health Mark Holland said in the report that he was “pleased” to release the data, which he said offers “a comprehensive picture of the provision of medical assistance in dying” in the country.

Holland noted that the Canadian federal government has recently initiated a “national conversation” to consider “advance requests for MAID.” The government of Quebec recently began allowing euthanasia for individuals who cannot consent at the time of the procedure, permitting “advance requests” for individuals suffering from afflictions such as Alzheimer’s disease.

Tens of thousands of Canadians have been euthanized by medical officials there since the program became legal.

This year’s report says government data indicate “44,958 MAID provisions since its legalization in 2016 to 2022,” which, with the latest data, “brings the total number of MAID provisions in Canada to 60,301.”

Concerns have been raised recently that regulators are not effectively policing the country’s euthanasia program. A bombshell report in November alleged that out of hundreds of violations of the country’s controversial euthanasia law over the course of several years, none of them had been reported to law enforcement.

Activists, meanwhile, are pushing for the government to expand the law to cover individuals with mental illnesses. The government recently considered making that expansion itself, though early this year it paused the measure to allow the country’s health care system “more time” to prepare for it.

null / Credit: MargJohnsonVA/Shutterstock

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Dec 12, 2024 / 11:25 am (CNA).

The United Kingdom’s ban on children receiving puberty-blocking drugs to facilitate a gender transition is now permanent, according to an announcement from the country’s Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC).

In a Dec. 11 statement, the DHSC wrote that the “emergency measures that restricted the sale of puberty-suppressing hormones will be made indefinite.” In March, England paused the prescription of puberty blockers for gender transitions and Scotland followed suit in April.

According to the statement, the decision is based on “independent expert advice from the Commission on Human Medicines (CHM),” which has determined “there is currently an unacceptable safety risk.”

“We are prioritizing patient safety, which is why we have accepted CHM’s recommendations in regards to this legislation,” the statement read.

The initial pause in allowing children to receive puberty blockers was prompted by the Cass Review — an independent analysis of studies on minors who receive these drugs, which was led by Dr. Hilary Cass. The study found no comprehensive evidence to support the routine prescription of transgender drugs to children who have gender dysphoria. 

According to the DHSC statement, in addition to the Cass review, later reviews also “found insufficient evidence to support the safety or clinical effectiveness of puberty blockers for adolescents.”

“[The CHM] has also advised that the current prescribing environment is unsafe and that an indefinite ban should be put in place until a safer prescribing environment can be established,” the statement continued.

Additionally, the DHSC noted that the CHM has “found poor medical and prescribing practice” in regard to gender transitions for minors. The department added that the CHM “saw evidence of poor-quality advertising, prescribing, and communication by private practitioners to children and young people that would constitute unsafe practice.”

“As an example, CHM found instances where children received prescriptions after filling out online questionnaires and a brief call with prescribers outside the U.K.,” the statement read.

In the United States, doctors can legally prescribe transgender drugs to children in about half of the states. According to a study by Do No Harm, at least 13,994 children underwent gender transitions in the United States from 2019 through 2023. The study also found that nearly 150 Catholic hospitals provided gender transitions in conflict with guidelines from the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.

Dr. Johanna Olson-Kennedy (third from the left, with president of ABC Entertainment Karey Burke, Caitlin Jenner, and producer Jane Cha Cutler at at fundraiser event for the Center for Transyouth Health and Development-Children's Hospital on Feb. 1, 2020) is being sued by a woman who says she was rushed into a gender transition. / Credit: Michael Tullberg/Getty Images

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Dec 11, 2024 / 15:35 pm (CNA).

A 20-year-old California woman is alleging that doctors, a children’s hospital, and a pediatric gender clinic negligently pushed her into a hormonal and surgical gender transition beginning when she was only 12 years old in a lawsuit filed late last week.

The lawsuit, filed by UCLA student Kaya Clementine Breen, claims that “her body has been profoundly damaged in ways that can never be repaired” following the hormone therapy and surgeries she received to make her body appear similar to a boy.

Breen was prescribed puberty blockers at age 12 after one visit to a gender clinic, received testosterone at age 13, and had a double mastectomy at age 14 to remove both breasts, according to the court filing. She suffered mental health problems and irreversible physical changes after the procedures.

The lawsuit alleges the doctors failed to properly assess her mental health problems and provided her parents with false and misleading information to encourage the gender transition she now regrets. She is seeking monetary damages for ongoing physical and mental repercussions.

“This so-called ‘treatment’ of Clementine by her providers represents a despicable, failed medical experiment and a knowing, deliberate, and gross breach of the standard of care that was substantially certain to cause serious harm,” the lawsuit asserts.

Immediately prescribed puberty blockers at age 12

According to the lawsuit, Breen first expressed to a school counselor that she felt “life would be so much easier if she were a boy” when she was 11 years old in the fall of 2016. When the counselor informed her parents, they took her to the Center for Transyouth Health and Development at the Children’s Hospital in Los Angeles (CHLA).

Breen was put under the care of Dr. Johanna Olson-Kennedy, the medical director of the center whom she met on Dec. 27, 2016, shortly after Breen turned 12, according to the lawsuit. The suit states that Olson-Kennedy “immediately diagnosed [Breen] with gender dysphoria and told her that she was ‘trans’ … within minutes during her very first visit.”

According to the lawsuit, Olson-Kennedy “immediately” recommended puberty blockers to be surgically implanted into her arm — a procedure Breen received on March 6, 2017.

The lawsuit asserts Olson-Kennedy “performed no mental health assessment” and “did not ask about things like past trauma, abuse, or mental health struggles or diagnoses” before her recommendation. For this reason, Breen’s lawyers allege that Olson-Kennedy did not learn of the “prolonged sexual abuse she suffered around the ages of 6 and 7” or the numerous mental health problems she struggled with, including anxiety, depression, and undiagnosed PTSD. 

Breen, the lawsuit states, was “struggling with the thought of developing into a woman, not surprising given the sexual abuse she had suffered.”

A spokesperson for CHLA told CNA that the hospital does “not comment on pending litigation; and out of respect for patient privacy and in compliance with state and federal laws, we do not comment on specific patients and/or their treatment.”

“The Center for Transyouth Health and Development at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles has provided high-quality, age-appropriate, medically necessary care for more than 30 years,” the spokesperson said. “Treatment is patient- and family-centered, following guidelines from professional organizations such as the American Academy of Pediatrics, American Medical Association, and Endocrine Society.”

Olson-Kennedy has come under scrutiny after the New York Times reported that she concealed the results of a taxpayer-funded study about the mental health effects of providing children transgender drugs because her research could not find any mental health benefits.

Jordan Campbell, one of Breen’s lawyers, told CNA that Breen was “one of the patients in that study.”

Olson-Kennedy did not respond to CNA’s request for comment.

Both the CHLA and Olson-Kennedy are named as defendants in the lawsuit.

Testosterone at 13, transgender surgery at 14

During Breen’s third visit to the transgender clinic on Sept. 9, 2017, the lawsuit alleges that Olson-Kennedy questioned her about whether boys in her school were going through puberty and recommended that she receive testosterone to “keep you on track.” It adds that Breen “expressed doubt” about testosterone, but Olson-Kennedy told her she “would be more likely to fully ‘pass’ as a ‘cis male.’”

The lawsuit asserts that Breen “hesitantly agreed” to receive testosterone, but her parents “were very much against the suggestion.” It alleges Olson-Kennedy “lied” to the parents and told them Breen was “suicidal” and “if they did not agree to cross-sex hormone therapy, [Breen] would commit suicide.” 

“She bluntly asked them if they would rather have a living son or a dead daughter,” the lawsuit asserts. “In tears, [Breen’s] parents would ‘consent’ to allowing Dr. Olson-Kennedy and her team [to] inject their confused, suffering child with life-altering testosterone.”

The lawsuit alleges Olson-Kennedy failed to discuss the “irreversible effects” and did not discuss alternatives. Breen began receiving testosterone on Jan. 26, 2018, when she was 13.

During her sixth visit to the gender clinic on Sept. 5, 2018, the lawsuit states Olson-Kennedy recommended a double mastectomy to remove both of her breasts. It alleges she “misled them by emphasizing the supposed importance of getting such a radical procedure early.”

Breen received the surgery on May 14, 2019, when she was 14. According to the litigation, Breen “had a brief, 30-minute pre-op meeting” with the doctor, Scott Mosser, and was given a consent form that was “facially deficient, including but not limited to failing to disclose the experimental nature of the procedure, failing to list the known risks, and failing to list all alternative forms of treatment.” 

CNA reached out to the Gender Confirmation Center, where Mosser is employed, to ask him for comment but did not receive a response by the time of publication. He is named as a defendant in the lawsuit.

Following the surgery, the lawsuit states Breen had “thoughts of suicide” and her “mental health had begun to spiral” with depression and intense anger. She also developed psychosis and had “auditory and visual hallucinations,” attempted “suicide by hanging,” and began “cutting her wrists.” 

Campbell told CNA the doctors were “completely ignoring her rapidly decreasing mental health” and acted “negligently” by prescribing “life-altering treatment” to a “deeply troubled, traumatized child.”

The lawsuit states Breen “began to realize that she may not actually be ‘trans’ but rather had been suffering from PTSD and other issues related to her unresolved trauma.” She scaled back the testosterone and her mental health issues began to resolve. She eventually stopped taking testosterone.

“Once she stopped, her mental health issues improved even further,” the lawsuit adds. “Her psychosis and hallucinations went away. Her depression went away. Her attention problems went away. Her anxiety went away. She began to have a healthy view of her body. In short, she began to heal.”

Campbell said Breen is trying to “recapture her femininity” and is now taking estrogen to reverse some of the effects of testosterone and intends to get chest reconstruction surgery, but added that “of course, it’s not the same thing as having her healthy breasts.”

“All the damage from the hormones, the surgery, is pretty much irreversible,” Campbell said. 

The lawsuit adds that Breen is likely infertile, “would not be able to breastfeed” even if she could get pregnant, and is “at risk for bone-related problems later in life.”

Breen is seeking monetary damages for medical expenses, pain, and suffering, and the cost of the lawsuit. Her lawyers are seeking a trial by jury.

In 24 states, lawmakers have banned transgender drugs and surgeries for children, and two states have banned just the surgeries. Both procedures remain legal in 24 states.

The interior of St. Boniface is seen in Manitowoc, Wisconsin. / Credit: John Maurer

CNA Staff, Dec 11, 2024 / 15:05 pm (CNA).

Parishioners in a small Wisconsin city have launched a GoFundMe as part of an effort to save a nearly 150-year-old church from permanent closure. 

Advocates for St. Boniface Church in Manitowoc are hoping to raise $8,000 to bankroll an appeal at the Vatican to stop the Diocese of Green Bay from shuttering the church. The parish itself dates to the 1850s while the current building was constructed in 1886. 

The diocese ordered the parish to merge with several others in 2005, with the last regularly scheduled Mass taking place there that year and the most recent Mass taking place in 2013. 

Bishop David Ricken issued a decree last year ordering that the 137-year-old building be relegated to “profane but not sordid use,” meaning it can be sold and used for nonreligious purposes so long as they are not immoral or offensive to the Catholic faith.

The bishop said in the decree that the building had not regularly been used since 2005 and was “no longer necessary for the care of souls in the community.” He also cited the building’s physical decline and the accompanying financial burden, as well as a decline of Catholics in the area.

John Maurer and Emily Baumann, who are leading a GoFundMe fundraising effort, told CNA that they hope to preserve St. Boniface’s status as a church. 

The present GoFundMe campaign — which aims to raise $8,000 — is small by the standards of many church preservation efforts. Mauer said the funds are meant solely to help pay for attorney’s fees at the Vatican where the parish’s advocates are currently arguing their case. 

“We’ve been going back and forth at the diocesan level,” he said. “The bishop sustained his decree two years ago. That’s why it went to Rome.”

“We went to the Court of the Dicastery for the Clergy. They ruled in favor of Bishop Ricken’s decree,” he continued. “We then went to the Supreme Tribunal. They sided with the lower court. Now we’re at the Congresso of the Apostolic Signatura.”

Though the $8,000 campaign will go toward the attorney at the Vatican, Baumann noted that advocates have already raised a considerable amount of money to help fund a church restoration.

“We can’t quite do anything with restoration until we get approval to be in the church and use the church,” she said. “But we already have secured all the money necessary for a full restoration. We’ve had it for a few years now. We just haven’t had the permission.”

In his decree, Ricken said the structure of St. Boniface is “in danger of decay and damage.” Baumann, on the other hand, argued that the church is in good physical shape and mostly requires cosmetic updates.

“We had contractors in to assess the roof and structure, and they said this building is in really good shape,” she said.

“That’s part of the reason we’re fighting so strongly. If most of the parish were able to walk through the doors today, they’d be shocked at what a good condition it’s in.”

A diocesan spokesperson declined to comment directly on the present fundraising effort. Mauer said there is “definitely huge support” throughout the local Catholic community to see the church restored.

“It’s not some small fringe group,” he said. “People are pledging money. We have to turn them away because we can’t take the money now. But they want to see it restored.”

Baumann said she has observed similar eagerness from community members to see the church preserved. “There’s really a deep-seated desire as a whole to see that building used,” she said.

“Our hope is with all we’re doing, maybe it deserves a second look,” she added.

St. Austin Catholic Church and School once the construction project was underway. / Credit: St. Austin Catholic Church and School

Seattle, Wash., Dec 11, 2024 / 06:00 am (CNA).

The Catholic Church in the United States is facing a real estate reckoning. Declining congregations, shifting demographics, and aging infrastructure have left thousands of Church properties underutilized or vacant. As dioceses merge and parishes close, leaders grapple with determining the future of these valuable yet costly assets.

The Church’s predicament is a delicate balancing act between financial pressures and mission objectives. Burdened by immense financial obligations — maintenance deficits often soaring into the millions — these properties are more than assets on a ledger. They are sacred spaces with spiritual significance, historical landmarks, and community pillars. These values transcend monetary measurement, yet decisions must be made.

“Many of these properties are dilapidated or just unused, and the overhead costs are immense,” said Michael Lyons, founder of [Y] Impact Ventures, an impact investment firm focusing on driving social good and financial return by boosting the value of housing through community building. “At the same time, the Church lacks funds from a ministry standpoint. There’s an arbitrage that needs to be addressed.”

Amid a national housing shortage and the aftershocks of the COVID-19 pandemic, some dioceses are adopting creative approaches to repurpose Church properties, aligning financial obligations with their mission.

Austin’s blueprint for balancing mission and finances

Facing mounting costs to maintain aging facilities, St. Austin Catholic Parish in Austin, Texas, saw an opportunity in its prime location near the University of Texas. In 2020, the parish entered a 99-year ground lease for half of its acreage with developer Greystar.

“The income from that lease allowed us to rebuild our school,” said Trish Dolese, partner at Emmaus Projects LLC, who guided the parish. “We tore down everything except the church and now have brand-new school and ministry spaces.”

Dolese highlighted the challenges the Church faces in real estate decisions. 

“The Church always thinks long term,” she said. “This can make them reluctant to make quick decisions about investing in real estate assets, which often conflicts with development timelines.”

The $45 million project was primarily funded by lease income, covering 88% of the costs. The parish raised an additional $7 million to complete financing. Despite the development, St. Austin retains ownership of the land and will regain full control — including all improvements — when the lease concludes.

“They built a 29-story student housing tower with affordable units and included a gym for our school and parish,” Dolese explained. “Because it’s a school, we can take tax-exempt status.”

By leveraging their proximity to the university, the parish found a win-win solution. “We still own the property, and life continues to happen in this church,” Dolese said.

Lyons points to this project as a model. “Instead of having to fire-sale the property, they maintained control and bought themselves time and financial runway,” he said.

Mission-driven repurposing of Church properties

Many parishes prioritize mission-driven initiatives, using their properties to serve vulnerable populations.

In Philadelphia, the Sisters of St. Joseph transformed a former convent into a men’s transitional home for immigrants and refugees. Since 2017, the SSJ Newcomer Housing Alliance has provided shelter and support to over 50 men from various countries.

“Each of those has been a success story,” said Sister Eileen McNally, the refugee coordinator. Building on this success, they plan to renovate another convent to accommodate 12 families of newcomer women and children within the year.

Their efforts won the “To the Heights Award” at the Church Properties Conference at the University of Notre Dame. “The $15,000 prize money will probably go to repairs,” McNally added.

“It’s about more than just housing,” she said. “We’re offering a supportive environment where newcomers can adjust to life in the United States.”

Reviving sacred spaces for redemption

In Cincinnati, the Serenelli Project aims to build a supportive community for individuals transitioning out of incarceration. Named after Alessandro Serenelli — who experienced a profound conversion after murdering St. Maria Goretti — the initiative seeks to restore the unused Our Lady of Perpetual Help Catholic Church.

“We expect to close on the church and rectory by the end of 2025,” said Marty Arlinghaus, founder of the project. “We’re actively searching for a director of community life to kick-start the monastic brotherhood.”

“Our goal is to provide a place where men can live in a structured, faith-based environment,” Arlinghaus said. “It’s about healing, redemption, and giving individuals a second chance.”

Navigating challenges and charting a path forward

Despite innovative projects, many Church leaders struggle with managing real estate assets effectively. The complexities of property management, combined with the Church’s mission, present significant hurdles.

“There is a broad lack of appreciation for the financial realities of Church property,” said Maddy Johnson, program manager of the Church Properties Initiative at Notre Dame’s Fitzgerald Institute for Real Estate. “Many of these properties are running seven-figure maintenance deficits.”

According to a 2020 Faith Communities Today report, two-thirds of churches in the U.S. have annual incomes of less than $100,000. “They face capital repairs that easily run into millions, plus ongoing costs to maintain these buildings,” Johnson said.

Administrators often have “dollar signs at the top of their minds” for good reason, she added. “A paradigm shift is required if these properties are to be reused within the life of the Church.”

Timing is another significant hurdle, as institutional processes can impede prompt decisions. “There are high bars bishops have to pass to divest property,” Dolese explained. “We have to balance our long-term vision with development timelines.”

Prolonged deficits pose additional challenges. “It’s crucial for dioceses to get ahead of these issues,” Lyons said. “Those who recognize issues early can pursue innovative solutions.”

Yet, Johnson sees a positive shift.

“We’re witnessing dioceses adopting creative, mission-aligned strategies,” she said. “Groups like the Loretto movement and the Sant’Egidio Community are laypeople united in ecclesial forms. This is a promising model for transferring responsibility when an asset can still be used within the Church.”

“There’s a lot of hope in this,” Lyons affirmed. “By finding creative solutions that align financial realities with the Church’s mission, we can help institutions adapt while staying true to their core values.”

Dolese believes reimagining Church properties is essential.

“The future use has more to say than our current use,” she said. “There’s value in preserving that legacy while adapting to new realities.”

Former Sistine Chapel choir director Monsignor Massimo Palombella leads the choir during a performance on May 9, 2018, in New York City. / Credit: Theo Wargo/Getty Images for AEG

CNA Staff, Dec 10, 2024 / 15:45 pm (CNA).

A pair of former Vatican officials has been found guilty of embezzlement and abuse of office as part of a long-running investigation into financial irregularities at a prominent choir there. 

Monsignor Massimo Palombella, who previously directed the Sistine Chapel Choir in Vatican City, and Michelangelo Nardella, who was the choir’s manager, were both found guilty in the Vatican City State Tribunal on various counts of embezzlement, laundering, and abuse stemming from their time leading the choir.

Nardella’s wife, Simona Rossi, was also convicted of embezzlement in connection with the scandal.

News of financial improprieties at the choir first broke in 2018 amid reports that Palombella and Nardella used choir concert proceeds for personal expenses. The Vatican launched an investigation that year.

Palombella resigned his position at the choir in July 2019. In January of that same year, Pope Francis issued a motu proprio that among other things moved the Sistine Chapel Choir under the administration of the Office of Pontifical Liturgical Celebrations.

Palombella was sentenced to just over three years in prison as well as a fine of 9,000 euros (about $9,500); Nardella will spend four years and eight months in prison and pay 7,000 euros (about $7,400) in fines. Nardella was also served with “perpetual disqualification from holding public office.”

Rossi, meanwhile, will serve two years in prison and pay 5,000 euros (about $5,300) in fines, along with a similar disqualification from public office. 

All three defendants will further be subject to the confiscation of tens of thousands of euros as part of restitution for the embezzlement crimes, and all will be required to pay legal fees.

Known officially as the Cappella Musicale Pontificia Sistina, the Sistine Chapel Choir is composed of 20 professional singers from around the world as well as a treble section made up of 35 boys aged 9–13 called the Pueri Cantores.

With a 1,500-year history, the Sistine Chapel Choir is believed to be the oldest active choir in the world.

Pope Francis speaks to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Paul Pelosi after Mass in St. Peter's Basilica on June 29, 2022. / Vatican Media

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Dec 10, 2024 / 15:15 pm (CNA).

Democratic Rep. Nancy Pelosi criticized Pope Francis for the Vatican’s deal with China regarding bishop appointments during an interview with the National Catholic Reporter published on Tuesday, Dec. 10.

The congresswoman from California and former speaker of the House of Representatives told the outlet that she is “not too happy” about the Vatican-China agreement, saying: “I don’t know what they have achieved” and adding: “Do you know of any success?”

“We have, for decades, seen the suffering of Catholics in China,” Pelosi, who is Catholic, told the Reporter. “I have a completely different view [from Francis]. … Why should the Chinese government be having a say in the appointment of bishops? I’ve talked to some folks here and they’re, ‘Well, we have to keep up with the times.’ What?! I don’t get that.”

In January 2018, Pope Francis and Chinese officials entered into a deal that gives the Chinese Communist Party input on bishop appointments. Most of the details of the deal and how it functions have not been made public, but the pontiff revealed in September 2023 that the agreement created a joint China-Vatican commission on the appointment of bishops.

The agreement has been renewed three times, most recently in October. The most recent renewal extends the deal into October 2028. Despite the appearance of friendlier relations on the surface, a report published in October by the Hudson Institute found that the “religious repression of the Catholic Church in China has intensified” since the deal went into effect. In November 2022, the Vatican accused China of violating the terms of the deal. 

In her interview with the Reporter, Pelosi referenced the Gospel of Matthew in her critique of the Vatican-China agreement. 

“Let me say it this way: ‘Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church,’” Pelosi said. “Every bishop has sprung from that rock. And now, the Chinese government?”

The congresswoman said she had spoken to the papal nuncio about “what our concerns were,” and commented that those concerns were bipartisan: “This brings a lot of us together because, over time, even bishops were being killed. I mean, this is like martyrs.”

Pelosi also showed solidarity with Cardinal Joseph Zen, the bishop emeritus of Hong Kong and staunch critic of the Chinese Communist Party and Vatican-China deal. In 2022, Hong Kong police arrested the cardinal for his role in assisting pro-democracy protesters for their legal fees, but he was later released on bail.

“With all the respect in the world for His Holiness, Pope Francis, my point of view is closer to the cardinal of Hong Kong, Joseph Zen,” Pelosi told the Reporter.

In 2020, Zen told CNA that he had not seen any positive changes for the Church following the deal with China. 

“Is there any choice between helping the government to destroy the Church or resisting the government to keep our faith?” Zen said.

According to a report by the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom in October, China has continued its persecution of Catholics and other religious faiths through its policy of the “sinicization of religion,” which means to make the religion conform to Chinese culture.

The report noted that, in practice, the policy essentially subordinates faiths to “the [Chinese Communist Party’s] political agenda and Marxist vision for religion.” This includes censorship of religious texts, forcing clergy to preach the party’s ideology, and requiring the display of Chinese Communist Party slogans in the churches.

In her interview with the Reporter, Pelosi also spoke about a wide variety of other issues, which included the decline of Catholic support for the Democratic Party in the 2024 elections and her feuds with Catholic bishops over her adamant support of abortion.

Although her bishop, Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone of San Francisco, prohibited her from receiving Communion within the archdiocese because of her support for abortion, Pelosi told the Reporter that she “received Communion anyway” and said: “That’s his problem; not mine.” 

“My Catholic faith is: Christ is my savior,” Pelosi said. “It has nothing to do with the bishops.”

Pelosi won her reelection by a more than 60-point margin in the heavily Democratic 11th Congressional District in California. The congresswoman, who turns 85 in March 2025, resigned from her leadership position within the Democratic Party in 2016 and was replaced by Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, who currently serves as the House minority leader.