Catholic News

Cultural shifts regarding sex and unwed childbearing as well as heightened material expectations for marriage are the driving forces behind America's falling marriage rates, according to a Heritage Foundation report.

While declining wages among working-class men is sometimes cited as reason for declining marriage rates, especially among moderate- to low-income brackets, Rachel Sheffield, a Heritage Foundation research fellow, said "the data tell a different story."

Over the past 50 years, the report said, marriage rates have declined from more than 90% of Americans having married by ages 30-35 in 1962 to 55% as of 2025.

"While inflation-adjusted earnings did decline among working-class and lower-income men during the 1970s and 1980s, earnings rose thereafter and have fluctuated since then — even as marriage rates have steadily dropped," the report said. "Although economic factors may explain why marriage declined during some periods across the past several decades, cultural shifts instead have been the main drivers."

"The economic argument doesn't really hold up to scrutiny," Sheffield told EWTN News. Sheffield said census data about the median earnings of men in their 20s and 30s has been "mostly flat" or fluctuated but not gone down consistently overall. Though "at certain times there were downturns," she said, wages have "reached some of the highest levels they have had in the last 50 years."

"I think the bigger point is that in the past," she said, "owning a home or having a particular size of home was less of a prerequisite to entering marriage than it is today."

Sheffield said one of the factors driving higher material expectations is that "people go into marriage today with more of an expectation that this might not last because of shifts over time in divorce rates."

According to Pew Research Center data, 1 in 3 Americans who have ever been married have also experienced a divorce. However, Pew Research Center notes that divorce rates have been down since the 1980s, partly due to the married population shifting to adults with higher levels of education and people with lower levels of education becoming less likely to marry at all.

While Sheffield said cultural norms about sex and childbearing have shifted across income levels, the shift has been most impactful on the working class, which she said is more likely to have children out of wedlock.

"People at all education and income levels have embraced the cultural push to disconnect marriage and sex, but among the college-educated, roughly 90% of children are born within marriage," the report said. "While the college-educated are most likely to promote the cultural messages that marriage is unnecessary, outdated, and even oppressive, they do not practice what they preach."

Furthermore, she said, "having a child [outside of marriage] is going to make it less likely for you to get married down the road because it is just a greater family complexity."

On a policy level, Sheffield called for funds from the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program to be used for "strengthening marriages," including through high school marriage education programs.

She highlighted Utah's "Healthy Marriage Initiative" as a strong example of a state providing marriage-preparation resources, including a discount on marriage licenses for couples who complete premarital education programs.

In addition to front-loading marriage education at the high school level, Sheffield called for a reorientation of cultural messages in the media, TV shows, and advertisements that "have information on why marriage is important and that can lead people to educational resources on how to strengthen marriage."

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One of the questions that often weighs on a Catholic's conscience when elections approach is how to decide which candidate to vote for.

Father Duberley Salazar has developed the "Discern" method, which is presented through short videos available on the "Clínica del Alma" ("Clinic for the Soul") Instagram account. Salazar explained to ACI Prensa, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News, that the videos serve "as a practical tool to guide and form one's conscience in making responsible political decisions."

"We live in complex times: times of moral confusion, social polarization, and political decisions that profoundly shape the destiny of individuals, families, and peoples. In this context, a decisive question arises: How should a Christian discern when faced with concrete political choices?" the Colombian priest states in the introductory video.

He also points out that Christianity possesses "an inescapable social and political dimension"; consequently, the method he has developed is grounded in that "which seeks the common good and which the Gospel illuminates, purifies, and elevates" and seeks to enlighten those believers who "experience a disconnect between the faith they profess and the decisions they make in public life."

"They believe, but they don't always discern. They vote, but not always from a formed conscience. From this dissonance is born a weak, disembodied faith incapable of transforming history," he notes.

The videos have been developed based on the "principles of sacred Scripture, the social doctrine of the Church, moral theology, philosophy, political science, bioethics, and psychology, uniting faith and reason, spirituality and social responsibility."

The program "is neither an ideological manual nor a partisan guide. It is an ethical and spiritual compass, designed to inform the conscience without imposing decisions," the priest explains.

For example, the first video, titled "God First," invites viewers to pray and place their vote in God's hands before making a decision, because "it's not about choosing what suits me best but rather what glorifies God and promotes the common good."

The second video, titled "Get Informed," urges viewers not to vote "blindly" but rather to inform themselves beforehand regarding the situation in their country or locality, each candidate, their platforms, and "their respect for the rule of law, the constitution, and democratic norms."

"Faith does not exclude reason; on the contrary, it enlightens and purifies it," the video notes.

Thus, the method proceeds, reflecting on service, consistency with Christian values, listening to that voice within, responsibility, the need to be exemplary in virtue, inspiration that edifies, and resilience.

What to do when there is no ideal candidate

In a document shared with ACI Prensa, Salazar explains that if, after evaluating the candidates, it is discovered that "none fully meet" the outlined criteria, one may "apply the moral principle of the 'lesser evil' or the 'choosing the possible good.'"

"This principle teaches that, in situations where no option is ideal, it is licit to choose the least harmful one or the one that offers greater consistency with Christian values, thereby avoiding contribution to a greater evil or to the deterioration of society," he states.

The priest points out that "the intention is not to seek human perfection, which no one possesses, but rather to act with responsibility, prudence, and faithful obedience to the Gospel, insofar as is possible."

He also noted that St. Thomas Aquinas referred to this moral principle when he noted: "Do not do evil so that good may come of it; always do whatever good you can, and avoid whatever evil is possible."

"This means that when voting, it is not merely a matter of choosing what comes closest to the good, but also of avoiding options that could gravely harm the common good or human dignity," Salazar explains.

However, if one determines that no candidate respects fundamental values, "the option of casting a blank ballot exists in some electoral systems as a way to express your dissatisfaction."

The priest points out that "from a moral and Christian standpoint, this option may be legitimate when, in truth, none of the candidates represents the common good or consistency with fundamental values."

But he noted that it is also important "to discern whether this gesture responsibly expresses your will or if, on the contrary, it could indirectly favor an option contrary to those values."

"For this reason, the principle of the 'lesser evil' invites you not only to choose the least harmful option but also to evaluate the real consequences of your vote within the specific context of your country and of society as a whole," Salazar notes.

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News. It has been translated and adapted by EWTN News English.

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In a marathon ecumenical prayer and praise celebration ahead of the nation's 250th anniversary, top U.S. political figures gathered with major faith leaders and several thousand Americans on May 17 to reflect on the role of Providence in American history and rededicate the country as "One Nation under God."

The event, which was held under the auspices of Freedom 250, the country's public-private initiative leading the celebration of the United States' 250th birthday, also commemorated the act of the American colonies' Continental Congress which ahead of the Revolutionary War proclaimed for May 17, 1776 a "Day of Humiliation, Fasting and Prayer."

In that proclamation, the leaders of the nascent nation urged their fellow citizens to "confess and bewail our manifold sins and transgressions, and by a sincere repentance and amendment of life, appease his [God's] righteous displeasure, and through the merits and mediation of Jesus Christ, obtain his pardon and forgiveness."

Catholic participants at the "Rededicate 250" event, held on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., included U.S. Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Cardinal Timothy Dolan, Bishop Robert Barron and actor Jonathan Roumie who plays Jesus in "The Chosen" television series.

President Trump did not attend or offer a customized message for the event. Instead, a video of the president from last month's "America Reads The Bible" event was played in which Trump reads from 2 Chronicles, including verse 7:14 "If my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land."

In a video message to the gathering, Cardinal Timothy Dolan noted that "in every chapter of the American story our faith in God has been the bedrock of our greatness."

"Our deepest values as a country have always been rooted in our identity as a people of God and anchored in the reality that we're not only American citizens — you bet we are and grateful for it — but that we are bound some day to be citizens of Heaven," Dolan emphasized, adding that "our founders knew that. They knew that in order to be faithful and productive citizens and true patriots, well we must recognize that we're children of God first."

Driving home the point, Dolan cited the nation's preeminent founding father and first president, George Washington, who in 1778 said "While we are zealously performing the duties of good Citizens and soldiers we certainly ought not to be inattentive to the higher duties of Religion — To the distinguished Character of Patriot, it should be our highest Glory to add the more distinguished Character of Christian."

Dolan also took the occasion to inform the audience that the nation's bishops will "consecrate the United States of America to the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus on June 12th of this year."

The central prayer of the event was led by Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Mike Johnson, who at the outset of his prayer recalled the nation's legislative forebears' act of May 17, 1776, which he noted they did "to humble themselves and to seek Your guidance at the dawn of their fight for freedom."

The resulting nation, Johnson continued, "would become, by Your mercy and grace, the most successful, most benevolent nation in the history of the world."

"Lord, today our people gather once again in your Name," Johnson prayed. "We have humbled ourselves before You. We acknowledge that the miracle of our founding and the countless miracles that have followed are Your doing."

"We pray that You bestow on all Americans a renewed love of country, hope for the future and faith in Your everlasting mercy and grace," Johnson continued. "Father we pray mercy upon our land, mercy upon us for our mistakes, forgive us of our sins individually and collectively and help us to devote ourselves with renewed piety and patriotism to the eternal truths of Your Word."

As he concluded his prayer, Johnson declared that "Today, here Lord, in this 250th year of American independence, we hereby rededicate the United States of America as one nation under God" and he asked for the Holy Spirit to descend upon the American homeland.

Johnson was followed by one of the country's best known Catholic prelates, Bishop Robert Barron, who referenced Blessed Fulton Sheen's saying that America's Declaration of Independence amounts to a "Declaration of Dependence" upon God.

"Lord, on this great national anniversary we gather to rededicate our country to You," Barron prayed. "Not because You need our devotion, but because by praising You we receive grace upon grace."

Recalling that the United States rests on theological foundations, Barron concluded his prayer by declaring that "as a bishop of the Catholic Church and as a proud American, I make bold to dedicate our country once more to God and to say Lord, let the light of Thy face shine upon our land. Amen."

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A White House official in President Donald Trump's administration expressed a desire to work more closely with churches and faith-based leaders in efforts to confront both drug and human trafficking and assist in recovery.

Victor Avila, assistant director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP), made the comments during a panel discussion on border security and immigration enforcement hosted by the America First Policy Institute's (AFPI) Hispanic Leadership Coalition in Washington, D.C., on May 14.

"We need to get the church involved," he said, referencing a ONDCP report that emphasizes the importance of faith-based partners.

The report, issued this month, details the administration's drug control strategy and states the office will ensure access to evidence-based prevention and recovery programs that are faith-based. It lists faith leaders as important partners and advocates and encourages them to use their role to promote a social norm that is opposed to using drugs and supportive of treatment for addicts.

Avila told EWTN News after the panel that he hopes churches can also assist in the realm of human trafficking, noting that much of it "happens in plain sight."

Both the Vatican and the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops have been outspoken on the issue of human trafficking in recent years, with the Vatican hosting an international conference last year on the issue and the U.S. bishops running programs and promoting policies to combat human trafficking.

Illicit drugs, human trafficking, and border policies

The discussion of drug control and human trafficking was part of a broader conversation about border security and immigration enforcement in the country.

While the U.S. bishops support border security, they have been at odds with the administration over various immigration enforcement policies.

During the panel, Avila indicated that the work to secure the border has been essential to the "drop in drugs coming in" and noted "the illegal alien rate [is] almost at zero." He specifically noted significant drops in poisonings related to fentanyl, which he also credited to dramatically improved border security during the current administration.

Alfonso Aguilar, AFPI director of Hispanic engagement, similarly noted humanitarian concerns that overlap with border security, noting people making journeys to cross the border unlawfully often face "violence, exploitation, and even death along the way" with many women and girls being victimized through "rape and sexual assault."

"That's not a humane system," he said, emphasizing that migration should be "effective, lawful, and humane."

Panelists, including Avila and Aguilar, defended the administration's mass deportation agenda, arguing that those policies are required for safety. Although a low percentage of migrants facing deportation have committed violent crimes, panelists claimed that a majority have some form of criminal history.

Aguilar said that number is 70% — the same number reported by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). This number includes people convicted of crimes and those who face charges but have no convictions. It includes both felonies and misdemeanors.

Speaking to EWTN News, Aguilar said some nonviolent crimes are serious: "Child pornography is not a violent crime. It is a serious crime. Those are being detained as well." During the panel, he noted other nonviolent crimes that put people at risk, such as driving while intoxicated.

"There is a 30% who are collateral arrests, but they are arrested when there's an enforcement operation going after a criminal," he told EWTN News.

Michael Garcia, a former Republican congressman from California, said during the panel that it's important to "hold the criminals accountable first," calling enforcement "common sense."

During the panel, Emilio González, former director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, also noted that he is an immigrant, but he considers illegal immigration to be the greatest threat to legal immigration.

"It should be legal, it should be safe, it should be orderly," he said.

Family separation, mass deportations

Before the panel began, Aguilar, a Catholic, quoted the concerns Cardinal Robert Sarah has expressed about large-scale migration, in which the cardinal noted that people come to Europe "penniless, without work, without dignity."

"The Church cannot cooperate with this new form of slavery that has become mass migration," Sarah said.

At the same time, Pope Leo XIV has encouraged support for migrants. In addition, the USCCB overwhelmingly backed a November 2025 joint statement to oppose "the indiscriminate mass deportation of people" and unnecessary separation of families.

A Brookings Institution report this week estimated that more than 100,000 children have been separated from their families as part of deportation proceedings.

A DHS spokesperson said in a statement to EWTN News that immigration enforcement "does not separate families," adding: "Parents are asked if they want to be removed with their children or ICE will place the children with a safe person the parent designates. This is consistent with past administrations' immigration enforcement."

Avila, who had a career in federal law enforcement before joining the Trump administration, told EWTN News it's "not a good feeling for us as police officers" to separate families, but that if someone in the country unlawfully has children who are citizens, then they have an option for the children to remain in the country or leave with the parent.

"They think that if my kid is a U.S. citizen that I get to somehow stay here," he said, adding that this situation does not justify remaining in the country unlawfully.

"I arrested countless people in my career," Avila said of his law enforcement experience. "One hundred percent of the time, I separated families."

He said immigration enforcement has "separated families all the time" including when Avila worked for DHS under former President Barack Obama. He alleged a "double standard" in rhetoric from "the [political] left."

DHS reported more than 675,000 deportations in Trump's first year in office and has estimated more than 2.2 million self-deportations in that time period. Some organizations, including the Center for Migration Studies, have questioned the asserted self-deportation numbers.

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Archbishop John C. Wester of Santa Fe, New Mexico, has strongly urged the U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) to stop expanding production of plutonium pits, the triggers used in nuclear weapons.

In a written statement, read by a priest on Wester's behalf at a public hearing on May 14, the archbishop described nuclear weapons as "immoral" and "genocidal." The priest who read the statement is from Hiroshima, Japan, where the U.S. dropped the first atomic bomb in 1945.

The hearing, the fourth of five scheduled this month, drew more than 130 people in person and roughly 100 online, with the vast majority expressing opposition to the agency's draft environmental impact statement, in which it lays out its plan to ramp up plutonium pit production.

Wester directly challenged the position of the NNSA that increased pit production complies with the 1970 Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT). He argued that the treaty's core bargain requires nuclear-armed states to work toward disarmament, a commitment he said has not been fulfilled.

"The essential bargain of the NPT was that the nuclear weapons states try to negotiate nuclear disarmament," Wester's statement said. "The nuclear weapons powers have never upheld that part of the bargain."

The NNSA proposal calls for at least 80 pits per year by 2030, as required by the 2015 National Defense Authorization Act, potentially split between Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico and the Savannah River Site in South Carolina.

Between the two locations, they could produce around 200 pits per year.

The current number of pits being produced annually is "classified," according to Toni Chiri, a spokesperson for the NNSA's Los Alamos field office.

Chiri stated that the agency values public input and will consider comments as it prepares a final environmental impact statement.

'Peace through atomic strength'

Nevertheless, Chiri emphasized the NNSA's mission. "We make weapons that deter our adversaries. Atomic strength is essential for U.S. nuclear deterrence and national security."

During the hearing, a screen displayed the NNSA's slogan: "Peace through atomic strength." The NNSA is housed within the U.S. Department of Energy.

The prelate's intervention carried particular weight coming from the Archdiocese of Santa Fe, which has lived for decades with the legacy of nuclear weapons development at Los Alamos in northern New Mexico.

Wester's message aligns with consistent Church teaching that the use of nuclear weapons is incompatible with peace and human dignity.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church explicitly condemns "indiscriminate destruction of whole cities or vast areas with their inhabitants," calling them "a crime against God and man."

It does not, however, explicitly declare the possession of nuclear weapons immoral. That stronger language has come more recently from Pope Francis.

In 2022, Francis wrote: "I wish to reaffirm that the use of nuclear weapons, as well as their mere possession, is immoral," in a letter to Ambassador Alexander Kmentt, president of the First Meeting of States Parties, regarding the U.N. Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.

During his year-old pontificate, Pope Leo XIV has made multiple calls for peace. He has also warned of the dangers of modern warfare, including the threat of nuclear escalation at a time when global tensions remain high, and he has called for renewed international efforts toward disarmament and de-escalation.

Comments on the draft environmental impact statement will be accepted until July 16. The NNSA expects to issue a final decision early next year, though some commenters noted that as the agency is required by law to manufacture the pits, public hearings are useless.

Chiri said, however, that "NNSA does listen; we take the comments — especially those that actually address the document — and consider those as we work towards our final document."

"Based on the turnout tonight, it's clear that the public is paying attention and wants to provide its input," she said.

Many attendees at the hearing also raised concerns about environmental impacts, water usage, waste disposal, and the health of workers and surrounding communities. Several speakers also questioned why a genuine "no-action" alternative — meaning no new pit production — was not seriously considered.

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In an address to its board of governors, Pope Leo XIV thanked the Catholic Extension Society on May 18 for the assistance it provides to the poor.

The pontiff praised the organization's founder, Father Francis Clement Kelley, who more than 120 years ago "sought to reach out to remote faith communities across the United States in order to bring to them the very life of Christ through the sacraments and the support of a larger Catholic community."

"This missionary enthusiasm is still needed today, and so I would like to thank you for your continued efforts to minister to the needs of the poorer Catholic communities both in the United States and abroad," the pope noted.

"In a particular way, I would like to commend your work in Cuba and in Puerto Rico. The support you provide to these communities is a beautiful expression of the universality of the Church and a living reminder that 'love for our neighbor is tangible proof of the authenticity of our love for God,'" the pope emphasized, citing his apostolic exhortation Dilexi Te.

He praised the pastoral care the society offers to the most disadvantaged "as well as to the numerous immigrant families in the United States."

"It is imperative that our brothers and sisters experience the warmth of a community which is marked by the presence of Christ," he emphasized.

The Catholic Extension Society raises funds to support and strengthen under-resourced mission dioceses throughout the United States. Founded in 1905, it is headquartered in Chicago.

The pope, a native of the Chicago area, took this opportunity to make a joke: "When someone from Dolton, Illinois, comes, we have to open all the doors! There aren't many of us around anymore," he quipped.

As they continue their mission, he added, Catholic Extension Society's dedication to not "only alleviate the temporal needs of those less fortunate" but also to "invest in building up vibrant Catholic communities is particularly necessary today."

"Faith-filled communities provide an opportunity for individuals to experience the joy of new life in Christ lived out in a daily, ordinary fashion," the Holy Father pointed out.

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News. It has been translated and adapted by EWTN News English.

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The president of the Mexican Bishops' Conference issued a powerful call to the Church and society not to turn away from those suffering because of the violence that is the result of organized crime, declaring that "our God hears the cries of the victims, walks with them, and calls upon us, too, not to look the other way."

Bishop Ramón Castro Castro of Cuernavaca delivered the message during the 12th annual Walk for Peace in his diocese on Saturday, May 16, as thousands gathered to reject resignation in the face of ongoing violence.

This march, he said, demonstrates that the people of Morelos are "a people who keep moving forward, who don't give up, and who continue to believe that peace is possible."

According to the most recent report by the Citizens' Council for Public Security and Criminal Justice, 17 Mexican localities appear on the list of the 50 most violent cities in the world. Cuernavaca ranks 23rd.

Guarding the 'flame' of peace

After recalling the message of Pope Leo XIV for the 2026 World Day of Peace observed on Jan. 1, in which the Holy Father described peace as "a small flame threatened by the storm," Castro affirmed: "That is what we have come here to do today: to guard that flame so that it's not extinguished by the storm. And we do so together, for if we stand alone, it goes out. But together, we can keep it lit."

The Mexican prelate emphasized that his message is not "that of a politician, nor of a social analyst, nor of someone who seeks to point out the suffering of others from a distance. I speak as a shepherd, as a brother who walks alongside his people."

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"I speak as a disciple of Jesus Christ who has seen too many tears on the faces of [the people of] Morelos and of Mexico, of our homeland, so deeply wounded by the violence afflicting our families," he noted.

"I have heard the mothers who break their silence, searching [for their disappeared children]," he continued. "I have seen the fear of young people who feel their future slipping away; the weariness of entire families living amid uncertainty, violence, and abandonment; the exhaustion of transport workers unable to earn an honest living because organized crime holds them in subjugation; and the fed-up frustration of so many who can no longer put up with the corruption we endure."

In the face of this suffering, he said, "the Church cannot remain indifferent, nor take refuge in the comforting atmosphere of its churches; for the God in whom we believe is not a God who observes from afar, he is the God of the burning bush, the God who said to Moses: 'I have seen the oppression of my people, I have heard their outcry, and I have come down to deliver them.' Our God hears the cries of the victims, walks with them, and calls upon us, too, not to look the other way."

"The Church is not here to divide or to sow confusion out of ambition or to gain power; the Church is here to build based on the truth, for only the truth can open the way to authentic reconciliation," the prelate said.

"In the face of the person mourning a child, of the one who has been forcibly disappeared, of the one being extorted, or of the one who has lost hope — there is Christ, crying out once again from the cross," he lamented.

A priest forced to leave his parish due to death threats

The prelate subsequently referred to the "particular wound" afflicting the small town of Huautla, in southern Morelos — one of the "poorest and most forgotten corners of our state," a "land of simple, hardworking people; a land hard hit for years by poverty and migration; a land that has watched its children depart in search of the daily bread they can't get there."

There, he denounced, "organized crime has reached a level of cruelty that defies description," exacting extortion payments, also known as protection money, "simply for living there, simply for owning a home."

"When the pastor of St. Francis of Assisi Parish in Huautla became the last bastion of hope for the community, as the priest so often is in Mexico's most vulnerable villages, and when his presence and his words were the only support the people had left to keep from sinking into despair, organized crime threatened to take his life."

"Those threats were so serious, so real, and so concrete that he was forced to leave his community for his own physical protection; and today, Huautla is left without a shepherd," he lamented.

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Governing means not abandoning the people

Castro emphasized in his message that "governing means not abandoning the people. Governing means not refusing to take up the responsibility of guaranteeing the security and well-being of every person within the territory entrusted to them."

"Our heartfelt plea without mincing words is that Huautla not be left all alone; that the government do its job to help the mothers searching [for their disappeared children] an effort which they rightly deserve; that transport workers be afforded security; that thousands upon thousands of merchants — micro, small, and medium-sized alike — be able to work without having to pay protection money; and that our young people be provided with real alternatives: quality education, decent jobs, and personal safety, so that organized crime is not the only door open to them."

"We ask you, government officials, not to sell us false narratives. The people aren't buying them anymore then you declare peace, while 90% of the people of Morelos are afraid to step out onto the street. That's not governing; that's an insult to the intelligence of the people," he stated.

At the same time, he assured the authorities of help from the Church and its priests, religious, and communities: "We're not here to criticize for the sake of criticism; we are here to contribute, to offer accompaniment, to put forward proposals, and to walk together toward peace."

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News. It has been translated and adapted by EWTN News English.

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The Society of St. Pius X (SSPX) went from full communion with Rome to formal rupture in less than two decades, a break that has never been fully healed.

On May 13, Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, warned that the episcopal consecrations without a papal mandate — which the society has announced will take place July 1 — will constitute a schismatic act entailing automatic excommunication, the very same scenario the SSPX bishops experienced in 1988.

Origins

The SSPX fraternity was founded in Switzerland as a priestly society of diocesan right by Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre and canonically erected in 1970 within the Diocese of Fribourg, with the approval of the Ordinary; that is, in full communion with Rome. The SSPX celebrates exclusively the Traditional Latin Mass and maintains doctrinal differences regarding certain teachings and reforms of the Second Vatican Council.

The first cracks in the relationship with the Catholic Church emerged just four years after its founding. In 1974, following an apostolic visitation to the seminary he had established in the Swiss town of Écône, Lefebvre publicly expressed his rejection of various teachings of the Second Vatican Council, not only regarding liturgical matters but also concerning broader doctrinal issues.

In a statement to ACI Prensa, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News, Italian sociologist Massimo Introvigne, one of the leading international experts on Lefebvrism, the "truly insurmountable" stumbling block for the Lefebvrists was the document Dignitatis Humanae. Promulgated in 1965, this document represented one of the most audacious theological and pastoral shifts of the Second Vatican Council, in which the Church affirmed the principle of religious freedom for the first time.

Dispute over religious freedom

"According to Lefebvre, only the Catholic Church should be guaranteed the right to religious freedom; other religions may, at most, be tolerated," summarized the sociologist, who also explains that this entails a rejection by the Lefebvrists of any openness toward ecumenical and interreligious dialogue.

The core of the disagreement regarding Dignitatis Humanae was the subject of intense correspondence with the then-prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, who held that position between 1981 and 2005 before being elected pope as Benedict XVI.

In a letter titled "Liberté religieuse. Réponse aux 'dubia' présentés par S.E. Mgr. Lefebvre," (Religious Freedom. Response to the 'dubia' presented by H.E. Archbishop Lefebvre) dated March 9, 1987 — one year prior to Lefebvre's excommunication — Ratzinger attempted to persuade Lefebvre that there was no rupture regarding religious liberty between the Magisterium preceding the Second Vatican Council and Dignitatis Humanae, and that the concept could be upheld on theological and philosophical grounds that exclude relativism.

"We have preserved the correspondence exchanged between the two, which reveals how, in the end, Cardinal Ratzinger concluded that Archbishop Lefebvre's positions were diverging from orthodoxy and from communion with Rome," Introvigne explained.

Introvigne, who interviewed Lefebvre on several occasions before his death in 1991, noted a little-known fact: the archbishop participated in all four sessions of the Second Vatican Council as superior general of the Fathers of the Holy Spirit and even signed all the conciliar documents.

However, Lefebvre's views became more radicalized after the council when he "began to be concerned about what he considered to be progressive drifts within the Church — drifts which, in his view, were moving away from tradition," the expert explained.

In that context, in 1970, he founded a seminary in Switzerland with the aim of offering a traditional priestly formation. "Gradually, throughout the 1970s, he also began to formulate responses that led him toward positions of rupture," Introvigne noted.

The first rupture

These responses led, in 1975, to the canonical suppression of the fraternity by the bishop of Fribourg, a decision that Lefebvre challenged unsuccessfully.

A year later, the situation escalated with his suspension ab ordinum collatione (from the conferring of orders) and, subsequently, a divinis, which prohibited him from performing any sacred act, including the celebration of Mass.

Although these categories belong to the 1917 Code of Canon Law then in force, their legal effect today is unequivocal: Lefebvre was deprived of the lawful exercise of his ministry.

Despite this, he continued to ordain priests, and the fraternity continued to expand its activities, "all under objective conditions of canonical illegality;" that is, outside of ecclesial norms, as explained to ACI Prensa by professor of Roman Law, Father Pierpaolo Dal Corso.

1988: Episcopal consecrations and schism

The definitive breaking point occurred on June 30, 1988, when Lefebvre consecrated four bishops without the required pontifical mandate, openly defying the authority of the Roman pontiff, John Paul II. According to Dal Corso, that act constituted "a wound of extreme gravity to the hierarchical communion of the Church" and had a clear schismatic dimension.

In the face of this new and grave act of insubordination, the then-Congregation for Bishops declared the Society of St. Pius X to be schismatic on July 1, 1988.

Dal Corso rejects the thesis of the supposed "state of necessity" invoked by the fraternity to justify the consecrations of 1988. Although the Code of Canon Law recognizes this concept as an exempting or mitigating circumstance, the Vatican clarified in 1994 that it was not applicable in this case, given the pope's explicit warning and the extreme gravity of the act.

"A state of necessity cannot be used to legitimize opposition to the authority of the Successor of Peter, nor to cast doubt upon the infallibility of the pope and the indefectibility of the Church," Dal Corso said.

The following day, John Paul II promulgated the motu proprio Ecclesia Dei, in which he affirmed that Lefebvre, the bishop who consecrated with him, and the four men consecrated as bishops had incurred latae sententiae (automatically upon the commission of the offense) excommunication in accordance with Canon 1364 of the 1983 Code for the crime of schism. 

Lefebvre died in 1991 without having shown public signs of repentance, an indispensable condition for an eventual canonical reconciliation.

Gestures of rapprochement without full regularization

In subsequent pontificates, there were significant attempts at rapprochement.

In 2007, Benedict XVI promulgated the motu proprio Summorum Pontificum, which recognized the legitimacy of using the 1962 Missal, otherwise known as the extraordinary form of the Roman Rite, an act which the fraternity highly values.

"It was an important step toward rapprochement, as it legitimized from a merely liturgical standpoint celebrations according to the 1962 Missal of John XXIII; they never accepted the missal resulting from the liturgical reform of the Second Vatican Council," Dal Corso explained.

Two years later, in 2009, Pope Benedict XVI lifted the excommunication incurred for the specific offense of episcopal ordination without a pontifical mandate.

However, as Dal Corso emphasized, this remission "did not affect the excommunication for schism," which remained legally in force. The canonical status of the fraternity therefore remained irregular.

Pope Francis took further pastoral steps, granting SSPX priests the faculty to hear confessions and granting diocesan bishops or other local ordinaries the authority to give SSPX priests the ability to celebrate licitly and validly the marriages of the faithful who follow the Society's pastoral activity. These measures, however, did not entail full juridical regularization.

Now, under the leadership of the Italian priest Davide Pagliarani, the fraternity has announced new episcopal consecrations for July 1, 2026, a date chosen with seemingly deliberate intent. "It is the very same day as the consecrations of 1988. Beyond being a provocation, it symbolically signifies a reaffirmation of that stance," the expert explained.

Meanwhile, the prefect of the Vatican's Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, has reiterated that lacking the requisite pontifical mandate, should they take place, these episcopal ordinations will constitute a schismatic act.

Introvigne said the current scenario brings the situation back to the one that existed before the papacy of Benedict XVI. As long as the doctrinal rejection of certain parts of the Second Vatican Council persists, he said, "reconciliation is impossible. The future, as the saying goes, is in the hands of God."

Canonical status of the faithful

Regarding the faithful who adhere to the SSPX, Dal Corso said that the Pontifical Council for Legislative Texts clarified in 1996 that excommunication for schism does not automatically apply to those who attend or participate in worship celebrated by the SSPX.

In this regard, Monsignor William King, JCD, professor of canon law at The Catholic University of America, told ACI Prensa that "if a person attends a Mass celebrated by a priest in schism, that individual is not excommunicated, unless he attends that Mass deliberately because he does not accept the authority of the pope or the authenticity of the Catholic Church." That is to say, for formal schism, it is necessary that the person freely and consciously embrace the essential core of schism: the denial of the pope's authority, outwardly manifested.

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News. It has been translated and adapted by EWTN News English.

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Catholic political and social thought, one of the foundational intellectual traditions of Western civilization, is poised for renewal as a new international initiative seeks to bring it back into conversation with new generations and decision-makers of tomorrow.

CatholicPOST, the Association for the Renewal of Catholic Political and Social Thought, was born from the conviction — shared by a group of European scholars during the COVID-19 lockdowns — that the health crisis had exposed not only the fragility of modern Western societies but also a deeper anthropological confusion threatening their social foundations.

That vision took concrete form at the inaugural conference of the association, titled?"The Renaissance of Catholic Social Teaching," held March 9–10 at the Ludovika University of Public Service in Budapest and attended by international academics and Vatican and Hungarian Catholic Church officials.

"COVID was a tragic moment in contemporary history, and it required thinking back again on the basics of social life," Professor Ferenc Hörcher — a Hungarian professor of political philosophy, historian of ideas, and the association's president — told EWTN News. "And that is something you can do best on the grounds of the Catholic tradition, pointing back to Aristotle and forward to the social teaching of the Church."

For Hörcher — also director of the Research Institute for Politics and Government at Ludovika?— the timing has only gained relevance with the election of Pope Leo XIV, whose choice of name evokes Pope Leo XIII, author of the landmark 1891 encyclical?Rerum Novarum, widely regarded as the founding text of modern Catholic social teaching.

Neglected intellectual inheritance

One of CatholicPOST's most urgent tasks is to restore Catholic social doctrine to its rightful place in intellectual life and academic discussion — a place it has progressively lost over the past century.

Secularization, according to the association's founders, has pushed Catholic intellectual traditions to the margins of public discourse. Even conservative academic circles, in their view, have often drawn more from Anglo-Saxon traditions with Protestant roots than from Catholic social thought.

"Catholicism finds itself in the second row," Hörcher said, "despite the fact that our modern and postmodern civilization is essentially built on it."

The association presents itself as a scholarly, nonpartisan platform, open not only to Catholics but also to thinkers willing to engage seriously with the tradition.

"The Church cannot enter directly into political debate — that is not its mission," Hörcher said. "But we, as Catholic intellectuals and practitioners in our own professions, can take that on."

Deeper stakes

The initiative of the group, consisting of, among others, American, Swedish, Maltese, and Hungarian scholars, emerges at a moment of mounting polarization across Western societies, as clashes over gender identity, family, bioethics, and the very understanding of the human person grow increasingly confrontational — and, at times, violent.

For Hörcher, this is precisely why a recovery of serious Catholic political and social thought matters. CatholicPOST, he said, aims to reconnect contemporary debates with an intellectual tradition capable of addressing questions of philosophical anthropology that go far beyond basic politics.

That ambition also helps explain the caliber of thinkers already orbiting the initiative, from French political philosopher Pierre Manent, a leading contemporary thinker on natural law and the moral foundations of political life, to scholars at the University of Notre Dame, home to the natural law tradition developed by John Finnis, and Princeton's James Madison Program, led by natural law theorist Robert George — a circle Hörcher is set to join for a year as a visiting scholar to Princeton's Department of Politics.

The initiative has also attracted attention in Rome. In his keynote speech at the Budapest conference, Father Avelino Chico, head of office at the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, presented Catholic social teaching as a living intellectual tradition still evolving in response to the "new things" of each age — from industrial modernity in the time of?Rerum Novarum?to contemporary social challenges such as artificial intelligence, migration, ecological crisis, and widening inequality.

Chico portrayed Pope Leo XIV as continuing that trajectory, seeking to integrate the legacy of Leo XIII and Pope Francis through the lens of integral human development — an approach that takes seriously not only economic realities but also the spiritual, cultural, and political dimensions of human life.

Supporting new generations

The association is already planning a second conference in Kraków, a deliberate choice honoring Poland's enduring Catholic intellectual tradition and the legacy of St. John Paul II.

Registration in the U.S. is also underway, as CatholicPOST has roots in American educational institutions like Christendom College, as a result of its aim to strengthen its international footprint and deepen transatlantic academic ties.

For Hörcher, however, the deeper hope is not merely institutional growth but helping provide intellectual substance to what he sees as a broader spiritual movement among younger Westerners rediscovering Christianity. "We hope to give munition," he said, "intellectual support for those young people."

He sees CatholicPOST as part of a recurring pattern in Catholic history. "Each century brought a revival of Catholic political thought," he said, citing the neo-scholastic revival of 16th- to 17th-century Spain, the Holy Alliance of the post-Napoleonic Age, the social teaching inaugurated by Leo XIII, and the contribution of Catholic thinkers such as Jacques Maritain to the postwar rise of the human rights framework.

"These historical precedents help us envision what a new renaissance might look like — and why it is needed now."

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UDAIPUR, India — Nine Catholics have been behind bars for more than two weeks after parishioners chased out more than a dozen people who barged into a village church during Mass, shouting accusations of conversion, in a remote village in India's desert state of Rajasthan.

"We feel frustrated that our people were denied bail a second time today on the false allegation of conversion," Bishop Devprasad John Ganawa of Udaipur, a Divine Word missionary, told EWTN News on May 12.

"When the hooligans disrupted the Mass on May 1 shouting 'conversion,' our people forced them out. Instead of registering a criminal case against the intruders, the police have charged our people with 'conversion and attempt to murder' and arrested nine Catholics of Bandaria Parish," Ganawa explained.

'They took out a knife'

"I was saying the evening Mass at the substation of my parish at Kalinjara village when the incident happened," Father Arvind Amliyar recounted to EWTN News.

"During the Communion time over a dozen people stormed into the church, shouted 'conversion,' and started filming with cameras. When one of them took out a knife, our people snatched it and chased them out," Amliyar said.

"Soon police came and what happened then shocked me. Instead of finding out what had happened, they arrested four Catholics the same night," the priest said.

A Hindu mob then staged a protest outside the police station and demanded action against the parishioners, according to Amliyar. Police turned away Catholics who went to them twice, including at midnight the same day and the next day, refusing to register their complaint.

Police came knocking on May 4 at 2:30 a.m. and arrested five more parishioners, including Anil Rawat, 70, a retired headmaster of a government school who now runs a private school in the village.

Bail denied twice

The local magistrate court rejected the parishioners' bail application the next day, as they were charged with "serious crimes": conversion and attempted murder. Church lawyers then moved the case to the Banswara district court, which denied bail again on May 12.

"Now, we have to go to the High Court with senior lawyers," Amliyar said of the challenging situation facing the village church, which serves about 70 Catholic families. About 70 people were attending Mass when the intruders stormed in.

"I cannot understand what is going on. The police bluntly refused to register the complaint of our people and have filed a serious charge of conversion against our people and imprisoned them," Ganawa said of the first case of alleged conversion in Udaipur Diocese, where he has served as bishop for 13 years.

Anti-conversion laws 'reduced to a tool to harass minorities'

"This is another typical case of the widespread abuse of anti-conversion laws against Christians in several states, most of them ruled by the BJP [Bharatiya Janata Party]," A.C. Michael, a Catholic and national coordinator of the United Christian Forum, which monitors atrocities against Christians, told EWTN News from New Delhi.

Under the Indian criminal system, the burden of proof lies with the prosecution. However, under recently enacted or amended anti-conversion laws, Michael said, the burden of disproving the charge of conversion is shifted to the accused, making it difficult for defendants to secure bail from trial courts quickly, even in fraudulent cases.

Under the Rajasthan Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Act, enacted in 2025, the burden of disproving the allegation of conversion falls on the accused.

As a result, Michael said, hundreds of Christians are languishing in jails in BJP-ruled states while protracted legal challenges drag on in higher courts.

"The shocking reality is that there has been hardly any conviction in so-called conversion cases. That is why the churches and Christian groups have moved the Supreme Court for abolishing the anti-conversion laws that have been reduced to a tool to harass minorities," Michael said.

He noted that the Supreme Court in May 2024 observed that certain provisions in anti-conversion laws may be in violation of Article 25 of the Indian Constitution, which guarantees the right to freely profess, practice, and propagate one's religion.

The Feb. 4–10 biennial assembly of more than 200 bishops in India in Bangalore also reiterated this concern in its final statement: "As many innocent individuals are incarcerated based on unfounded allegations of forceful religious conversions, we strongly demand the repealing of legislations which are inconsistent with religious freedom and right to privacy."

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