Posted on 04/14/2025 20:42 PM (CNA Daily News - US)
Missouri Republican Sen. Eric Schmitt at the CPAC D.C. conference at the Gaylord National Resort in Oxon Hill, Maryland, on Thursday, Feb. 20, 2025. / Credit: DOMINIC GWINN/Middle East Images/AFP via Getty Images
Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Apr 14, 2025 / 17:42 pm (CNA).
U.S. Sen. Eric Schmitt, R-Missouri, announced that he is introducing new legislation to make Easter a federal holiday so families are able to spend “the holiest day in Christianity” together.
In a thread of posts on X, Schmitt explained why the day should be federally recognized, starting with the fact that “81% of Americans celebrate Easter.”
“But,” he continued, “our current holiday schedule makes it way too difficult for families to celebrate together.”
81% of Americans celebrate Easter.
— Eric Schmitt (@Eric_Schmitt) April 14, 2025
But our current holiday schedule makes it way too difficult for families to celebrate together.
Easter falls on the longest unbroken work stretch of the calendar. (March and April are the only back-to-back months without a federal holiday). pic.twitter.com/g0057itmWm
The new bill is in the earliest stage of the legislation process but states its intent is “to designate Easter Monday as a legal public holiday,” which Schmitt said “isn’t a radical idea.”
“It’s a federal recognition of a tradition that is central to Western civilization — a tradition that’s already recognized as a public holiday in nations across (and beyond!) the West, including Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and most of Western Europe,” Schmitt said.
“It isn’t even novel in America,” Schmitt continued. “We already have a ‘National Day of Prayer,’ signed into law by Missouri’s own President [Harry] Truman. A federal Easter Monday holiday allows Americans to celebrate the most extraordinary day in world history, Easter — the day of Christ’s resurrection.”
Schmitt said that Easter is not a “micro-holiday” but rather a day that “unites more than three-quarters of Americans.”
“For generations, many American school calendars gave students the day off for Good Friday and Easter Monday,” he continued.
Schmitt explained that aside from religious elements, the day off would also create a break when “workers and families need it most.”
“Easter is a floating holiday, it can fall from March 22 to April 25. The only two-month gap in our federal holiday calendar is April-May. An Easter Monday holiday fills the gap.”
Schmitt said federal recognition of the holiday is “Pro-worker. Pro-family. Pro-faith.”
“There are plenty of practical arguments for it, too,” Schmitt said. “Easter weekend already generates around $15 billion for our economy. Making it a three-day weekend could boost that by an estimated 10%-15%, adding up to $2 billion in economic activity while strengthening American families.”
“Our holidays and traditions are part of the story we tell about ourselves. This is not partisan. It’s not a ‘Republican’ or ‘Democrat’ holiday. It’s an American holiday, allowing a fuller celebration of the defining moment of the faith that shaped our nation and civilization,” Schmitt said.
Posted on 04/14/2025 18:32 PM (CNA Daily News - US)
Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro. / Credit: Office of the Governor of Pennsylvania, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
CNA Staff, Apr 14, 2025 / 15:32 pm (CNA).
Catholic leaders in Pennsylvania have expressed shock and offered prayers after a man was arrested and charged for allegedly attempting to murder Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro and his family by setting the governor’s residence ablaze early Sunday morning.
Cody Balmer, 38, allegedly managed to scale an iron security fence and enter the governor’s mansion in Harrisburg, quickly setting a fire in a dining room using improvised incendiary devices, police said at a press conference on Monday. Shapiro and his family were able to escape unharmed, but the residence was heavily damaged.
The incident took place in Harrisburg, the state capital. Bishop Timothy Senior of Harrisburg in an April 14 statement said the attack “struck at the very heart of our shared values as a society.”
“I want to unequivocally state that all forms of hate are unacceptable. They have no place in our hearts, our homes, or our communities. Such acts of violence and intolerance threaten the fabric of our society and undermine the principles of love, respect, and understanding that all people of faith are called to embody,” Senior said.
At a press conference Sunday, Shapiro, an observant Jew who had celebrated a Passover Seder with his wife, four children, and extended family at their home the night before the attack, said he was “overwhelmed by the prayers and messages of support” and vowed not to be deterred if, in fact, the suspect was attempting to intimidate him because of his Jewish faith.
“No one will deter me, or my family, or any Pennsylvanian from celebrating their faith openly and proudly,” Shapiro said.
Balmer told police he planned to beat Shapiro with a sledgehammer if he had found him inside the house. Prosecutors have charged Balmer with attempted murder, terrorism, aggravated arson, and other crimes, NPR reported. He may face federal charges as well.
Police have not announced whether they have uncovered a motive for the attack other than saying Balmer “admitted to harboring hatred towards Gov. Shapiro.” The suspect’s mother told the Associated Press that her son “wasn’t taking his medicine” at the time of the attack.
Harrisburg’s Bishop Senior went on to say that as Catholics, “we must be committed to the eradication of any form of hatred, including antisemitism,” and called on his flock to seek to create an environment where “the God-given dignity of every person is respected.”
“I am saddened that any form of political violence, let alone violence that is motivated by an attempt to suppress or intimidate a family because of their religion, is found in our community — especially at this time that is so sacred to our Jewish brothers and sisters and also to all of us as Christians as we celebrate Holy Week,” Senior continued.
“Our prayers are with the Shapiro family and their guests, whose faithful observance of the sacred tradition of their faith was grievously violated by this act. We Christians must stand in solidarity with our Jewish brothers and sisters in all circumstances, but especially this year as the observance of the days of Passover coincides with the most sacred days of the Christian liturgical calendar, Holy Week, the week leading us to our Easter celebration.”
Bishop David Zubik of the Diocese of Pittsburgh, in his own statement, similarly called to mind the shared patrimony of the Christian and Jewish people.
“Particularly during this Holy Week for Christians and Passover time for the Jewish people, we focus on the deep love that God has for all of us. We must be deeply grateful that Gov. Shapiro and his family are safe, and we must also pray for an end to violence, which goes against everything good about us as human beings,” Zubik said.
This story was updated April 15, 2025, at 6:06 p.m. ET with the statement from Harrisburg Bishop Timothy Senior.
Posted on 04/14/2025 18:02 PM (CNA Daily News - US)
President Donald Trump speaks with White House groundskeepers on April 8, 2025. / Credit: The White House/Flickr
Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Apr 14, 2025 / 15:02 pm (CNA).
President Donald Trump issued two messages on Palm Sunday recognizing the importance of the Holy Week leading up to Easter and renewed his calls to protect religious liberty in public policy.
In a post on the social media platform Truth Social and in a White House presidential message, Trump wished Christians a “Happy Easter” and discussed the importance of the celebration for Christians and the nation.
“Christians around the world remember the crucifixion of God’s only begotten Son, Our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ and, on Easter Sunday, we celebrate his glorious resurrection and proclaim, as Christians have done for nearly 2,000 years, ‘HE IS RISEN!’” Trump said in an April 13 post on Truth Social.
“Through the pain and sacrifice of Jesus on the cross, we saw God’s boundless love and devotion to all humanity and, in that moment of his resurrection, history was forever changed with the promise of everlasting life,” the president said in the post.
Trump, who describes himself as a nondenominational Christian, wished fellow Christians “a happy and very blessed holiday” and called the United States “a nation of believers,” adding: “We need God, we want God and, with his help, we will make our nation stronger, safer, greater, more prosperous, and more united than ever before.”
The president also issued a statement through the White House in which he said: “[First Lady] Melania and I join in prayer with Christians celebrating the crucifixion and resurrection of Our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ — the living Son of God who conquered death, freed us from sin, and unlocked the gates of heaven for all of humanity.”
Trump said Holy Week “is a time of reflection for Christians to memorialize Jesus’ crucifixion — and to prepare their hearts, minds, and souls for his miraculous resurrection from the dead.”
“During this sacred week, we acknowledge that the glory of Easter Sunday cannot come without the sacrifice Jesus Christ made on the cross,” Trump said.
“In his final hours on Earth, Christ willingly endured excruciating pain, torture, and execution on the cross out of a deep and abiding love for all his creation,” he added. “Through his suffering, we have redemption. Through his death, we are forgiven of our sins. Through his resurrection, we have hope of eternal life. On Easter morning, the stone is rolled away, the tomb is empty, and light prevails over darkness — signaling that death does not have the final word.”
The president also urged prayers for “an outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon our beloved nation” and that the United States “will remain a beacon of faith, hope, and freedom for the entire world, and we pray to achieve a future that reflects the truth, beauty, and goodness of Christ’s eternal kingdom in heaven.”
In his message released through the White House, Trump also emphasized his support for religious liberty in public policy.
“This Holy Week, my administration renews its promise to defend the Christian faith in our schools, military, workplaces, hospitals, and halls of government,” the president said. “We will never waver in safeguarding the right to religious liberty, upholding the dignity of life, and protecting God in our public square.”
In February, Trump signed an executive order to create a task force to “eradicate anti-Christian bias” within the federal government. The task force is reviewing policies within the U.S. Department of Justice, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and other federal departments and agencies to identify unlawful anti-Christian policies.
Trump also reversed executive policies from former President Joe Biden’s administration that sought to impose “gender identity” anti-discrimination rules on Catholic entities, which the nation’s bishops had warned would make them ineligible for public contracts.
However, the bishops have feuded with the administration over its cuts to migrant and refugee programs and foreign aid contracts, which supported Catholic nongovernmental organizations both domestically and abroad. The bishops are currently involved in a lawsuit against the Trump administration over some of the funding cuts.
Posted on 04/14/2025 17:32 PM (CNA Daily News - US)
Arkansas Republican Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders speaks at the annual CPAC D.C. conference at the Gaylord National Resort in Oxon Hill, Maryland, on Saturday, Feb. 22, 2025. / Credit: DOMINIC GWINN/Middle East Images/AFP via Getty Images
Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Apr 14, 2025 / 14:32 pm (CNA).
Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders has signed into law a bill to prevent adoptive agencies and foster care providers from discriminating against potential parents on account of their religious beliefs.
The Keep Kids First Act provides religious freedom protections to both prospective parents and faith-based adoption and foster care organizations to prevent either from having to violate their firmly held religious beliefs during the fostering and adoption processes.
The act specifies that the state government may not discriminate against adoptive parents based on “refusal to accept or support any government policy regarding sexual orientation or gender identity that conflicts with the person’s sincerely held religious beliefs” and grants parents the ability to seek legal action against the state for violations.
“Every child deserves a loving home that can provide them stability and opportunities to grow. Yet other states have put politics over people by excluding caring families and faith-based adoption and foster care organizations from helping children find loving homes,” Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) Senior Counsel Greg Chafuen stated in response to the news.
Chafuen praised the act for prioritizing “the well-being of kids by prohibiting state and local government officials from discriminating against adoption and foster care providers and parents simply because of their religious beliefs and moral convictions.”
ADF currently represents families in Vermont and a mother in Oregon who are fighting lawsuits against policies in those states that require prospective foster and adoptive parents to first affirm an adherence to gender ideology before they can foster or adopt children.
Last week, lawmakers in Kansas successfully voted to override Gov. Laura Kelly’s veto of a law protecting religious liberty of adoptive and foster parents on issues related to gender identity and sexual orientation. More than two-thirds of Kansas lawmakers voted to pass the law prohibiting Kansas Department for Children and Families from enacting policies that would force an adoptive parent or foster parent to affirm support for gender ideology or homosexuality to obtain a license to adopt or foster children.
Posted on 04/13/2025 07:00 AM (CNA Daily News - US)
A priest holds palms on Palm Sunday. / Credit: Grant Whitty via Unsplash
CNA Staff, Apr 13, 2025 / 04:00 am (CNA).
This year Palm Sunday falls on April 13.
Palm Sunday is the day we remember and honor Jesus’ entrance into Jerusalem before his crucifixion. As Jesus entered the city on a donkey, people gathered and laid palm branches and their cloaks across Jesus’ path, shouting: “Hosanna to the Son of David!” It is also significant because it fulfilled Old Testament prophecies. For example, Jesus rode into the city on a donkey, fulfilling the prophecy found in Zechariah 9:9.
According to Brittanica, the earliest evidence of Palm Sunday being celebrated dates back to the eighth century.
The palm symbolized victory in the ancient world. All four Gospels tell us that people cut branches from palm trees and laid them across Jesus’ path and waved them in the air as he entered Jerusalem triumphantly a week before his death. As the Church enters Holy Week, the faithful use palms to commemorate his victory and Jesus’ passion liturgically.
Palm harvesters can be found around the world. However, a certain kind of palm tree grown in Florida called cabbage palmetto makes up a large majority of the palms used in U.S. parishes.
The account of Palm Sunday can be found in Matthew 21:1–11, Mark 11:1–11, Luke 19:28–44, and John 12:12–19.
Catholic, Orthodox, and Protestant communities celebrate Palm Sunday.
Yes. Since every Sunday is a holy day of obligation, Palm Sunday is also a holy day of obligation.
Watch this video with step-by-step instructions.
Yes, you can eat meat on Palm Sunday. Sundays during Lent are still celebrations of the Resurrection. Abstinence from meat, the traditional form of Lenten penance, occurs on Fridays during Lent. Fasting, which involves abstaining from meat and eating only one meal with two smaller snacks that do not equal the size of the main meal, occurs on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday.
Yes. Palm Sunday can also be referred to as Passion Sunday. Palm Sunday comes from the fact that it honors Jesus’ entrance into Jerusalem, where the people carried palm branches. It also is called Passion Sunday because the Gospel narrative of Jesus’ passion is read on this Sunday.
The ashes used on Ash Wednesday are the burned palms from the previous year’s Palm Sunday. That means the palms used this year will be burned into ashes to be used during Ash Wednesday next year.
Red is worn on Palm Sunday in honor of the Lord’s passion.
This will vary but it will most likely be over an hour long. In many parishes, Mass begins with a procession. The procession symbolizes those who went to meet the Lord as he entered Jerusalem. The Gospel reading is also much longer than usual. The Passion narrative is read and the faithful participate throughout the reading.
Yes, of course!
This story was first published April 9, 2022, and was updated April 10, 2025.
Posted on 04/12/2025 14:00 PM (CNA Daily News - US)
Students from local schools lead the Colorado March for Life at the state capitol on April 11, 2025. / Credit: Kate Quiñones/CNA
Denver, Colo., Apr 12, 2025 / 11:00 am (CNA).
When Beverly Jacobson was five months pregnant, the doctors told her she should have an abortion. Jacobson’s daughter, Verity, had Edwards syndrome, a developmental condition that their specialist said was “incompatible with life.”
“He went on to say that if she survived, she would be a drain on the family mentally, emotionally, and financially,” Jacobson said on Friday.
But he was wrong. On Friday, Verity joined her mom on the steps of the state capitol as Jacobson addressed the Colorado March for Life.
“She is a gift from God,” Jacobson told the crowd of 3,500 pro-lifers gathered at the steps of the capitol building.
Jacobson has since founded a nonprofit called Mama Bear Care to support mothers and families who receive difficult pregnancy diagnoses.
The Colorado March for Life is one of 19 state marches run by the March for Life taking place this year. Colorado’s was organized jointly by the March for Life and Pro-Life Colorado.
Colorado — historically one of the most pro-abortion states in the country — just passed an abortion funding bill. If signed by the governor, $1.5 million in public funding would go to abortion annually for a program proponents say would save the government money by “averting births.”
During her speech, Tamra Axworthy, head of ACPC Life Services and Women’s Clinic, called the bill “eugenics disguised as public policy.”
Instead of supporting mothers and valuing life, “our lawmakers have decided that the cheaper option is to eliminate children before their first breath,” she said.
“That is not compassion. That is not justice.”
Pam Behler, the head of local pregnancy resource center My Choice Resource Center, shared that two young women recently came straight to the clinic from Planned Parenthood thanks to local pro-life sidewalk counselors.
One had come all the way to Vail, a mountain town, to have the abortion, but when she found out she was 13 weeks pregnant she came to the center and got an ultrasound.
“She was so happy,” Behler recalled.
Another young woman had been told she couldn’t do an ultrasound at Planned Parenthood unless she had an abortion.
“We’re just praying, praying, praying for her to keep the baby,” Behler said.
Maria Carpenter, who now organizes abortion healing retreats at Deeper Still Pikes Peak, shared during her speech her experience healing from abortion and suicidal thoughts.
Carpenter said she had been minutes away from dying by suicide when she heard the phone ring. A co-worker she hadn’t heard from in years was calling to invite her to go to church with her.
Carpenter remembers tears running down her cheeks as she accepted “God’s invitation.”
“In my darkest hour, God saw me in my shame, my pain, and my lostness, and he pursued me,” she told the crowd. “I regret my abortions, but I now have my voice back.”
The front of the march was led by several school groups, many dressed in their uniforms, all chanting various slogans. Among the signs: “We are the pro-life generation and we will abolish abortion” and “We love babies, yes, we do!”
Several onlookers pulled out their phones to take photos of the large crowd making its way down Colfax Avenue.
Mark Baisley, a Republican state senator representing Colorado’s 4th Senate district, also spoke at the event, encouraging people to turn their hearts toward God.
Madeline Lamb, a young mom who lives in Littleton, said she came to the March for Life because she believes the cause is “not just a political issue.”
“This is legitimately a moral issue that we should all band together and fight for,” she told CNA.
Sister Mary Grace of the Sisters of Life — a well-known Catholic speaker who hails from Australia — reminded the audience of God’s presence, saying “every second that your heart beats, God is bestowing life into you.”
“Every human life is the icon of the divine, breaking into a dark world,” Sister Mary Grace said.
In 1967, Colorado became the first state to decriminalize abortion. Current state law allows abortion up until birth. Just last year, Coloradans passed an amendment enshrining a “right to abortion.” Now, the abortion funding bill that passed in the House and Senate is in the hands of state Gov. Jared Polis.
But Sister Mary Grace — and many other marchers — haven’t lost hope.
“God is breaking in,” Sister Mary Grace said.
Jennie Bradley Lichter, the new president of the national March for Life, spoke on the importance of marching for life, urging attendees: “Despite the challenging landscape, don’t be discouraged.”
“We know how this story ends. We know that life wins.”
Denver Auxiliary Bishop Jorge Rodriguez led a reflective closing prayer.
“We want the world and Denver to hear the silent noise of a baby in his or her mother’s womb, the newborn’s whimper, the laugh of children; but also to hear the faith of the sick and the wisdom of the elderly,” Rodriguez said.
“Such a richness, Lord, comes from your mind, your heart, and your hands.”
Posted on 04/12/2025 13:00 PM (CNA Daily News - US)
Former U.S. Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom Sam Brownback (right) speaks to “EWTN News Nightly” anchor Mark Irons on Friday, April 11, 2025. / Credit; “EWTN News Nightly”
CNA Staff, Apr 12, 2025 / 10:00 am (CNA).
Former U.S. Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom Sam Brownback on Friday praised President Donald Trump’s choice of former U.S. Rep. Mark Walker for the position, hailing the nominee as an “excellent pick” who will advance religious liberty worldwide.
Brownback served in the religious freedom role from 2018 until 2021. He was the first Catholic to serve in that role; he was the governor of Kansas prior to the appointment and also served as a U.S. senator.
Trump announced Walker’s nomination on Thursday. Appearing on “EWTN News Nightly” on Friday night, Brownback told anchor Mark Irons that Walker brings “several real key assets” to the role.
“No. 1 is he knows the president well, and the president knows him,” Brownback said. “And that’s the key piece for the ambassador, is just that he can be out there and speaking for the president of the United States. And whenever he travels around the world, he’s speaking for the president, and people respect that.”
“No. 2, he’s been a pastor,” Brownback continued, referring to Walker’s Southern Baptist ministry. “So he really knows the issues and it’s in his heart, it’s in his DNA. This is what he is, this is what he’s about.”
“And then he’s been in Congress," he added. “So he knows the Hill. And the Hill is critically important on pushing religious freedom around the world — for people to know that you understand how the process works, you have friends where the process works and you mean what you say and you’re going to get things done. I think this is a really excellent pick for the president.”
Brownback noted that “a lot” goes into the ambassadorship position “because religious freedom has become the cornerstone human rights issues for those of us on the right.”
“And it’s an issue around which, if you can get it established in countries, you can build your other human rights — right of assembly, the right of free speech, these other things, if you can get this foundational issue set right.”
Freedom of religion, Brownback noted, is attacked “particularly by authoritarians” including the Chinese Communist Party.
“They are all about eliminating religious freedom,” he said. “To them, it’s an existential threat. To us, it’s a cornerstone human right. There really couldn’t be a bigger dichotomy, and carrying that message and pushing it around the world is what the ambassador does.”
On Thursday, after his nomination was announced, Walker said in a statement that he was “open-eyed to the bad actors and regions committing [atrocities] against people of faith.”
“Religious expression is the foundation of human rights and, whether it’s a college campus in New York or Sub-Saharan Africa, I’ll be relentless in fighting for those targeted who dare to live out their faith,” the nominee said.
Posted on 04/12/2025 12:00 PM (CNA Daily News - US)
Seminarians live active lives, balancing prayer, studies, fraternity, and exercise. The Nazareth House provides seminarians with a healthy space to recreate, pray, cook, and share meals together. / Credit: Mike McCleary/University of Mary
CNA Staff, Apr 12, 2025 / 09:00 am (CNA).
A Catholic liberal arts university based in North Dakota is partnering with the Diocese of Phoenix to develop Arizona’s only Catholic seminary.
Despite now being home to more than 2 million Catholics, the Diocese of Phoenix had no seminary of its own for more than 50 years.
Nazareth Seminary is working with University of Mary’s “Mary College,” a satellite academic institution partnered with Arizona State University (ASU).
University of Mary, also known as “UMary,” has offered Catholic studies and theology courses at ASU through Mary College for more than a decade. Through the “unprecedented” partnership, Mary College classes fulfill degree requirements at the large public university.
With the new diocesan partnership, Mary College will form seminarians as they pursue degrees in Catholic studies and philosophy with Mary College.
The seminary will continue to grow as Mary College plans to launch graduate-level degrees in 2026, when the college will offer master of divinity and master of arts in theology degrees.
The first ordination class is already being formed, with 27 seminarians currently enrolled at Mary College. By spring 2026, 10 seminarians will graduate from the program with undergraduate degrees.
Scott Lefor, the director of Mary College at ASU, said the timing of the partnership was “incredibly providential.”
“The providence that seems to be behind all this is just beautiful,” he told CNA.
Mary College first came to Phoenix in 2012 after Bishop Thomas Olmsted, now retired, invited UMary president Monsignor James Shea “to bring Catholic higher education to the valley,” Lefor recalled.
As it developed its seminary program, the diocese found that UMary at ASU already had much of the groundwork for a seminarian academic program.
“What a beautiful way for that relationship to develop into serving the community in this very unique and beautiful way,” Lefor said.
When the Diocese of Phoenix reached out to UMary, the university already had “a slight majority of what we needed in place,” Lefor recalled.
UMary faculty had already designed the philosophy major to align with the Program of Priestly Formation in case a UMary philosophy student were to go on to seminary.
“We had a ton of the courses already in place. We had the facilities, we had the presence,” he said. “It was incredibly providential.”
Nazareth Seminary is designed so that seminarians are formed within the communities they will one day serve.
While traditional formation for seminarians takes eight years and involves limited direct experience with parish life, the Nazareth Seminary is based on a model of formation that prioritizes parochial interactions.
Seminarians begin with community life and general studies for the first two years. Then, the young men stay at Our Lady of Perpetual Help in Scottsdale for the third year of spiritual formation. Next, in the discipleship stage, seminarians return to full-time academics at Mary College while living in parish-based seminarian houses. Finally, for the graduate-level stage, seminarians study advanced theology while living in smaller parish houses centered on fraternity.
Seminarian houses are overseen by at least two priests who are in parish ministry and serve as mentors.
“It looks a bit closer to rectory living than we’ve had in the past with our seminaries,” Father Paul Sullivan, rector of Nazareth Seminary, told CNA.
This model ensures “more intentional, smaller communities” for the seminarians, “which hopefully brings with it deeper and more intentional friendships, accountability, and growth,” Sullivan said.
Sullivan said this structure has “brought with it so many blessings.”
While Arizona seminarians were previously educated out of state — sometimes as far away as Ohio — Nazareth seminarians can have a closer relationship with the diocese and the people they will serve.
Sullivan hopes the structure will provide “continued deepening of the bond between the men who will be future pastors and their own dioceses, and the communities, and the people that they will serve as well as their bishops and the priests.”
Nazareth Seminary also presents a fuller picture of day-to-day priestly life, he observed.
“We live communal life together, priests and seminarians,” Sullivan said.
Sullivan said he hopes this will help with discernment, enabling seminarians to “embrace” the priesthood for what it is, “in the midst of real community and real parish life that in no way is perfect but always in need of conversion and service and evangelization.”
Lefor said that for UMary, being a Catholic university, “there’s something special about being able to engage in the seminary formation.”
“We actually have a priest who’s an alum of UMary, the Catholic studies program,” Sullivan added.
“He’s been ordained for almost two years now,” Sullivan noted. “So he’s the first one to be connected to UMary who went to seminary afterwards.”
ASU has a “very busy” Newman Center located at the oldest-standing Church building in the valley, Old St. Mary’s Church.
“We’re this big Catholic compound,” Lefor said.
The seminarians are “active participants” in the Catholic community on campus, Lefor noted. They attend classes on the ASU campus in the Mary College building, which has its own classroom and study library. But they also participate in the campus Newman Center.
“They hang out at the Newman Center,” Lefor said. “They’re meeting — quite literally — the future leaders of their diocese, their peers.”
Nazareth House has been up and running for some years in its first, “propaedeutic” stage, as the seminarian program is being built up around a group of seminarians that recently started taking classes at Mary College.
“I teach some of the guys in my own class, and they’re just phenomenal young men,” Lefor said. “They love the Lord. They want to serve the local dioceses. And there’s just something healthy about them being able to be present in it and know the people — so I think it’s a great blessing.”
Posted on 04/11/2025 19:58 PM (CNA Daily News - US)
Jimmy Lai and other demonstrators were convicted in 2021 of taking part in what the Hong Kong government argued was an “unauthorized assembly” at Victoria Park in Hong Kong’s Causeway Bay neighborhood. / Credit: 美国之音莉雅, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Apr 11, 2025 / 16:58 pm (CNA).
The Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation announced that Catholic human rights activist and political prisoner Jimmy Lai will be an honorary recipient of a 2025 Bradley Prize for being an “inspiration to all who value freedom.”
Lai is the founder of the pro-democracy newspaper Apple Daily and a human rights activist who chose to stay in Hong Kong and risk imprisonment to fight for freedom against the Chinese Communist Party.
The foundation said Lai “is a courageous advocate for democracy and freedom of the press, whose powerful criticisms of Beijing’s control over Hong Kong have made him a target of Chinese authorities.”
“He is currently in prison, where he has spent more than four years in solitary confinement. He faces the possibility of life in prison if convicted under the draconian national security law Beijing imposed on Hong Kong in 2020,” the foundation’s announcement said.
Rick Graber, president of the Bradley Foundation, said in a statement: “Jimmy’s extraordinary courage and deeply held beliefs in journalistic integrity, human dignity, and democracy are an inspiration to all who value freedom.”
“His advocacy against oppressive, authoritarian rule put him at risk,” Graber continued. “Yet instead of fleeing Hong Kong under increasing pressure by the Chinese communist regime to silence his views, he stayed and continued to advocate for truth and transparency.”
“His sacrifice serves as a beacon of hope for those fighting against tyranny, and we are proud to award him with an honorary Bradley Prize.”
The foundation stated that the prize is given “to individuals whose extraordinary work exemplifies the foundation’s mission to restore, strengthen, and protect the principles and institutions of American exceptionalism and honors the ideals of the Western tradition.”
Jimmy Lai’s son Sebastien Lai will receive the award on his behalf at the Bradley Prizes ceremony on May 29 at DAR Constitution Hall in Washington, D.C.
In a statement to the foundation, Sebastien Lai said: “Our family is deeply grateful for this honor of my father from the Bradley Foundation. He is to us most importantly a husband, father, and grandfather, but he has earned his place as a hero in the hearts of many around the world.”
“The Bradley Prize is a testament to his commitment to truth and freedom, made evident in his tremendous self-sacrifice,” Sebastien continued. “From a tiny prison cell in Hong Kong, he continues to stand strong against the world’s largest and most powerful totalitarian regime.”
“Thank you for reminding the world that his cause is not lost — good people must now fight for his freedom as he fought for theirs,” Sebastien concluded.
Posted on 04/11/2025 19:23 PM (CNA Daily News - US)
A sign outside the Internal Revenue Service building in downtown Washington, D.C. / Credit: Rob Crandall/Shutterstock
CNA Staff, Apr 11, 2025 / 16:23 pm (CNA).
A federal bill proposed this week would affirm that nonprofits and charities are not receiving federal “financial assistance” simply by being granted a tax-exempt status.
The Safeguarding Charity Act, introduced by Florida Rep. Greg Steube, would order that the term “federal financial assistance” in the U.S. code “shall not include any exemption from federal income tax.’’
The two-page bill would further direct that the government could not retroactively deem nonprofit groups as having received federal “assistance” prior to the bill’s passage.
Steube in a press release said the measure “is about protecting churches, religious schools, and charities from federal overreach.”
Oklahoma Sen. James Lankford introduced a companion bill in the U.S. Senate on Thursday. Lankford argued that tax-exempt organizations “should not live in fear of federal control every day because courts want to redefine the meaning of tax-exempt status.”
“We should be focused on enabling the work of these organizations — not burdening them with unnecessary and costly federal requirements,” he said.
The bill was previously introduced last year, though it ultimately stalled without passage.
Greg Baylor, a lawyer with the religious liberty law firm Alliance Defending Freedom, pointed to two recent district court rulings — Buettner-Hartsoe v. Baltimore Lutheran High School and E.H. v. Valley Christian Academy — that held that private schools were subject to federal Title IX regulations because of their tax-exempt status.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit ultimately overturned the ruling in the Lutheran school case. “Incorporating the plain meaning of that phrase, does tax-exempt status constitute accepting federal financial aid, help, or support? We think not,” the court ruled at the time.
ADF had last year filed a brief in support of the school, arguing that defining tax exemption as federal assistance would have “significant ramifications for private nonprofit institutions across the country.”
“If tax-exempt status itself constituted federal financial assistance, then churches, mosques, synagogues, temples, and other houses of worship across the country would automatically be swept into a host of new regulatory obligations because of their tax-exempt status, whether or not they request that status,” ADF said in its briefing.
Baylor pointed out that “no federal agency has ever attempted to force an organization to comply with a statute triggered by the receipt of federal financial assistance on the ground that it was tax exempt.”
Still, he said, if the “financial assistance” interpretation were widely embraced, “hundreds of thousands of tax-exempt organizations will be unexpectedly subject to burdensome federal statutes and regulations.”
These organizations would “incur substantial compliance costs and could potentially lose their tax-exempt status if they are found to have violated any of the relevant statutes,” he said.
