Top 2025 religious freedom developments included mix of persecution, protection

null / Credit: Joe Belanger/ShutterstockWashington, D.C. Newsroom, Dec 19, 2025 / 06:00 am (CNA).Here is an overview of some of the religious freedom developments and news in the United States and abroad in 2025:White House started the Religious Liberty CommissionPresident Donald Trump established the White House Religious Liberty Commission in May to report on threats to religious freedom in the U.S. and seek to advance legal protections. The commission and advisory boards include members of various religions. Catholic members on the commission include Cardinal Timothy Dolan and Bishop Robert Barron. Catholic advisory board members include Archbishop Salvatore J. Cordileone, Bishop Thomas Paprocki, Bishop Kevin Rhoades, and Father Thomas Ferguson.Lawmakers condemned persecution of Christians Rep. Riley Moore, R-West Virginia, and Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Missouri, introduced a joint resolution condemning the persecution of Christians in Muslim-majority countries across the wor...

Cardinal Dolan says of retirement: 'I'll always keep working'

The archbishop of New York, Cardinal Timothy Dolan, speaks to EWTN News on Friday, April 25, 2025, at the Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls in Rome. / Credit: Screenshot/EWTN NewsCNA Staff, Dec 19, 2025 / 07:00 am (CNA).Now that the Vatican has announced that Archbishop-designate Ronald Hicks will succeed Cardinal Timothy Dolan as archbishop of New York, what comes next for the cardinal?"I'll always keep working," Dolan told Father Dave Dwyer, a Paulist priest, executive director of Busted Halo Ministries, and cohost of "Conversation with Cardinal Dolan," during a discussion of his retirement plans earlier this year. "For a priest, your life is your work," he said, indicating that he hopes to continue preaching retreats, which he said he loves, and teaching. "But I won't have an appointment. I won't have administrative duties. Yippee!" Dolan quipped.The cardinal said he is looking forward to having "more choices, instead of waking up in the morning and being han...

Pope Leo XIV appoints new bishop for Palm Beach, auxiliary bishop for Phoenix

Palm Beach Bishop-elect Manuel de Jesus Rodriguez / Credit: Courtesy of the Diocese of Palm BeachCNA Staff, Dec 19, 2025 / 07:30 am (CNA).The Holy See said on Dec. 19 that Pope Leo XIV had made two new episcopal appointments in the United States, with the Vatican announcing a new bishop for the Diocese of Palm Beach as well as an auxiliary bishop for the Diocese of Phoenix. Father Manuel de Jesus Rodriguez will lead the Palm Beach diocese after the resignation of Bishop Gerald Barbarito, the Vatican said. At 75, Barbarito has reached the customary age at which bishops retire. Bishop-elect Rodriguez is currently a priest in the Diocese of Brooklyn, where he serves at Our Lady of Sorrows Church in Queens. Born Jan. 15, 1974, in the Dominican Republic, Rodriguez studied at the Pontifical University Madre y Maestra in that country, receiving philosophy and law degrees there before obtaining several other degrees and certificates, including a doctorate in legal studie...

Jerusalem churches advocate for Gazan children to have cancer treatment in Israel

Eight-year-old Yamen Abu Hilal lies on a bed as a woman sits beside him in a hospital room in Gaza City, Gaza Strip, on Nov. 24, 2025. His condition has sharply worsened amid the collapse of Gaza's health care system, which has been unable to provide diagnostic tools, medication, or equipment since no medical supplies have entered the Strip following the ceasefire. / Credit: Doaa Albaz/Middle East Images/AFP via Getty ImagesWashington, D.C. Newsroom, Dec 19, 2025 / 08:00 am (CNA).Here is a roundup of Catholic world news from the past week that you might have missed:Jerusalem churches advocate for Gazan children to have cancer treatment in IsraelChurch leaders in Jerusalem have called on the Israeli government to allow children in Gaza with leukemia to be allowed into Israel to receive treatment at Augusta Victoria Hospital on the Mount of Olives. The Dec. 17 statement was addressed to "the responsible authorities" in Israel and signed by the Patriarchs and Heads of the Ch...

Federal court allows Michigan therapists to counsel children claiming to be opposite sex

The Michigan capitol building in Lansing. / Credit: John McLenaghan/ShutterstockCNA Staff, Dec 18, 2025 / 12:36 pm (CNA).Counselors and therapists in Michigan will be allowed to treat children who believe themselves to be the opposite sex, striking down a Michigan law that outlawed such counseling by claiming it constitutes "conversion therapy."The Dec. 17 ruling at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit blocked the Michigan law by stating that it "discriminates based on viewpoint" by forbidding therapists from counseling children that they are their own biological sex rather than the opposite sex.The court noted that the law "expressly" allows therapists to help children commit to a so-called "transition" to the opposite sex. The rule is a "near-certain violation" of the First Amendment, the order said.The Michigan law was passed on the grounds that steering children away from a transgender identity constitutes "conversion" similar to counseling that seeks to mitigate s...

HHS announces actions to restrict 'sex-rejecting procedures' on minors

President Donald J. Trump watches as Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Health and Human Services Secretary, speaks after being sworn in on Thursday, Feb. 13, 2025, in Washington, D.C. / Credit: Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post via Getty ImagesWashington, D.C. Newsroom, Dec 18, 2025 / 13:31 pm (CNA).The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) proposed regulations today that would seek to end "sex-rejecting procedures" on anyone younger than 18 years old, which includes restrictions on hospitals and retailers.Under one proposal, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) would withhold all funding through Medicare and Medicaid to any hospital that offers surgeries or drugs to minors as a means to make them resemble the opposite sex. The proposed rules would prohibit federal Medicaid funding for "sex-rejecting procedures" on anyone under 18 and prohibit federal Children's Health Insurance program (CHIP) funding for the procedures on anyone under 19.This includes surgical ...

European Parliament backs abortion fund resolution amid Catholic criticism

The European Parliament in Strasbourg, France. / Credit: fotogoocom via Wikimedia (CC BY 3.0)Vilnius, Lithuania, Dec 18, 2025 / 14:04 pm (CNA).The European Parliament voted Dec. 17 in favor of a resolution supporting the creation of a new European Union fund intended to expand access to abortion services across member states, a move that exposed deep divisions among lawmakers and renewed debate over national sovereignty and abortion legislation in EU policymaking.Members of the European Parliament meeting in Strasbourg voted 358 in favor, 202 against, with 79 abstentions. The proposal would establish a voluntary, opt-in financial mechanism to assist women who are unable to procure abortions in their home countries and who choose to travel to states with more permissive laws.The initiative was brought forward under the EU's European Citizens' Initiative (ECI) framework by the campaign group My Voice, My Choice, which claims to represent a broad grassroots mobilization of Europea...

Catholic bishops speak out as New York governor pledges to sign into law assisted suicide

Disabilities advocates in Buffalo, New York, during a candlelight vigil in opposition to assisted suicide. / Credit: New York Alliance Against Assisted SuicideCNA Staff, Dec 17, 2025 / 17:00 pm (CNA).New York Gov. Kathy Hochul will sign into law an assisted suicide bill that Catholic leaders have ardently opposed, making New York the 13th state to allow the practice. Hochul, who called it an "incredibly difficult decision," said she will sign the bill after lawmakers add some "guardrails." The bill allows doctors to give terminally ill patients drugs to end their lives. Hochul's additions to the law include requiring a waiting period, a recorded oral request for death, and a health evaluation. The law will go into effect six months after signing.    Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York and other New York bishops have been outspoken against the legislation, issuing several statements opposing it. In a brief meeting with Hochul over the summer, Dolan urged ...

First painting in Rome of Our Lady of Guadalupe preserved in fourth-century church

This image is preserved in the Church of San Vital, built in 386, in Rome. / Credit: Victoria Cardiel/EWTN NewsRome Newsroom, Dec 17, 2025 / 17:30 pm (CNA).The Church of St. Vitale, built in 386, is the oldest Christian church still standing in the center of Rome. It is the "only place of worship from the fourth century that has remained intact throughout the centuries," emphasized its parish priest, Father Elio Lops.This early Christian church, discreet and given little attention on typical tourist routes, safeguards an artistic and devotional treasure that is practically unknown: the first image of Our Lady of Guadalupe painted in the Italian capital."It has never been given the importance it deserves," Lops told ACI Prensa, CNA's Spanish-language news partner, referring to a representation of the Virgin Mary that immediately brings to mind the image imprinted on St. Juan Diego's tilma in 1531.The similarities are striking. "There is no doubt about its identity," the parish p...

Pentagon chief announces reforms to U.S. military's Chaplain Corps 

U.S. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth (at right) is shown here during a meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio (at left) and then National Security Advisor Mike Waltz (at center). / Credit: The White House, Public domain, via Wikimedia CommonsCNA Staff, Dec 17, 2025 / 20:05 pm (CNA).U.S. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth announced that he has issued a directive aimed at reforming the military's Chaplain Corps, beginning with the elimination of the U.S. Army's current Spiritual Fitness Guide.In a video post, Hegseth described a "real problem" facing the nation's military forces: "the weakening of our Chaplain corps" that has "been going on for far too long.""In an atmosphere of political correctness and secular humanism, chaplains have been minimized, viewed by many as therapists. instead of ministers," he said. "Faith and virtue were traded for self help and self care."Hegseth said that "chaplains are intended to be the spiritual and moral backbone of our nation's forces," r...