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CNA Staff, Apr 10, 2024 / 15:00 pm (CNA).

Republican Gov. Brad Little of Idaho on Monday signed a law designed to protect government employees and students at public schools from being forced to use names and pronouns that violate their sincerely held beliefs. 

HB538, which the Idaho Legislature passed last week, is set to take effect July 1. The new law provides for "a prohibition on any governmental entity in the state of Idaho from compelling any public employee or public school student to communicate preferred personal titles and pronouns that do not correspond with the biological sex of the individual seeking to be referred to by such titles or pronouns."

"Such prohibition is essential to ensure that the constitutional right to free speech of every person in the state of Idaho is respected," the bill reads.

Government, public school, and higher education employees "shall not be subject to adverse employment action" for declining to use a person's preferred pronouns or addressing a person with anything other than his or her legal name. The act also covers students, saying they "shall not be subject to adverse disciplinary action" for declining to use a person's preferred pronouns or addressing a person by a name other than his or her legal one. 

In terms of enforcement, the act provides for a "private cause of action for injunctive relief, monetary damages, reasonable attorney's fees and costs, and any other appropriate relief."

Alliance Defending Freedom, a Christian legal group, praised the governor's actions, saying: "All of society benefits when freedom of speech and conscience flourish."

"No one should lose their job or face punishment at school for declining to say something they believe is false," ADF senior counsel Matt Sharp said in a statement.  

"Words and language carry meaning, and when used properly, they tell the truth about reality, feelings, and beliefs. Yet forcing individuals to say things that are untrue — such as inaccurate names, pronouns, and titles — imposes real harm on the speaker. In no world is it acceptable for schools to force good teachers out of a job all for the sake of promoting gender ideology to vulnerable children. Now and always, there are only two sexes — male and female — and denying this basic truth only hurts kids."

The Idaho bill comes in response to a number of cases throughout the country in recent years of teachers and students facing disciplinary action for expressing Christian beliefs about gender. 

In August 2021, Virginia's Supreme Court sided with a teacher after he challenged a school district policy requiring teachers to refer to students by their preferred gender pronouns.

And in 2022, Ohio's Shawnee State University and Nicholas Meriwether agreed to a $400,000 settlement after the professor faced disciplinary action for declining to use the preferred pronouns of a self-identified transgender student. The university denied claims it had violated the professor's free speech and religious freedom, though the professor's attorneys claimed victory.

Later that year, a Kansas middle school teacher was awarded a $95,000 settlement with her school district, which had suspended her in an effort to force her to comply with its gender policies, which included a mandate to lie to parents about their children's gender transitions.

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CNA Staff, Apr 10, 2024 / 15:30 pm (CNA).

"Growth is anticipated."

That's how the Tokyo-based company Oji Holdings described the Japanese adult diaper economy last week. The company announced in a press release that it would be terminating its "domestic disposal diaper business for babies" later this year.

The baby diaper market in Japan is a "low-growth business," the company indicated, though the 150-year-old company said it will not exit the diaper business altogether.

The company "aims to continue … focusing its resources on the market for the domestic disposable diapers business for adults, where growth is anticipated," the press release said. 

Oji's pivot toward adult diaper manufacturing underscores an ongoing crisis facing many developed nations around the world, Japan in particular: cratering fertility rates. 

Global fertility has been falling for decades, though the problem is often most acute in industrialized nations with high standards of living.

Many of these countries are well below the "replacement rate" of fertility — generally about 2.1 births per woman over her lifetime — needed to keep a population stable. In the U.S. the overall fertility rate is about 1.7; in the U.K. it's about 1.5; in Germany it's about 1.4. 

Japan, meanwhile, sits at about 1.3 births per woman. The country's severely low fertility rate has persisted for decades; it has not been at replacement rate since roughly the 1970s. 

With so relatively few births of children, the country is growing steadily older: The International Monetary Fund in 2020 said that "with a median age of 48.4 years, Japan's population is the world's oldest," with the government predicting that by 2060 "there will be almost one elderly person for each person of working age."

Church has warned of cratering fertility for years

Catholic leaders have for years been warning of the decline in fertility rates worldwide. In 2022 Pope Francis described the ongoing collapse of fertility in Western countries as a "social emergency" and a sign of "new poverty," with the Holy Father arguing that the "beauty of a family full of children" is "in danger of becoming a utopia, a dream difficult to realize."

Vincenzo Bassi, the president of the Federation of Catholic Family Associations in Europe, told CNA in 2020 that "without children, without future workers, we cannot maintain the generational balance which is essential for the future, the economic future of Europe, of my country [Italy], and of the whole world."

Denver Auxiliary Bishop Jorge Rodríguez, meanwhile, told Crux in 2021 that in addition to major "societal consequences" of low fertility, "the decrease of births means a decrease in our capacity to love and to cherish life."

Laurie DeRose, an assistant professor in Catholic University of America's sociology department, told CNA this week that aging and fertility crises have their roots in birth rates that began years ago. 

"[It] doesn't matter so much what age people are dying on average (60, 70, 80, 90) as whether the number of new zero-year-olds is plentiful," she said. 

"The average age is going to change a little if people die at 90 instead of 80 (a bit older), but it is going to change a whole lot if a newborn isn't born," she noted. 

"In other words, a baby not being born makes the population older for a long, long time whereas an elderly person not dying makes the population older for at most 30ish years."

Brad Wilcox, a professor of sociology at the University of Virginia as well as the director of the school's National Marriage Project, told CNA that Japan "is an example of where things can go." 

"I don't think the U.S. is going to reach that point, but it's emblematic of the demographic problems many countries are facing," he said. 

Wilcox, who recently published the book "Get Married: Why Americans Must Defy the Elites, Forge Strong Families, and Save Civilization," said Japan's "workist" culture is partly responsible for its low fertility rate. 

"There's an excessively intense work ethic in Japan, as with many East Asian countries, where people are expected to spend many long hours in the office," Wilcox said. "A lot of Japanese women are not looking forward to a family life where the husband is going to be away from the home so frequently and for so long."

Japan's "struggling" demographic of young men is another factor, he said, with many young men floundering at schools and retreating to heavy internet usage, rendering them less suitable as potential boyfriends and husbands. 

"Young women [in Japan] are flourishing, educationally and otherwise, and are expecting a lot more from potential mates," WIlcox said, "and their expectations are not always being met in significant numbers. That means less dating, less marriage, less children."

Japan is also a "profoundly secular place," he pointed out. Religious communities and institutions "tend to foster marriages and childbearing and parenthood, in part because of the social support, in part because they endow meaning and purpose to the sacrifice and suffering that's attendant to family life." 

DeRose said combatting workism in Japan could be a path forward to reversing its fertility woes. In a 2021 essay at American Affairs, she argued that policymakers "should think more in terms of enabling men and women to work less rather than seeking to help them still 'do family' while remaining career-centric." 

Some solutions include "encouraging more flexible work arrangements" and "rolling back strict licensure and certification rules for work," she wrote. 

Another solution could be "working toward gender egalitarianism in the home," she told CNA. 

"Research on developed countries show that couples are much more likely to have another child if the father is involved in the domestic sphere," she said

Wilcox, meanwhile, was not hopeful about Japan's prospects. "There's already an effort to manage the demographic decline," he said. "We're talking about care robots [and] the age of retirement being raised." 

Wilcox also warned about the likelihood of pressure mounting to provide assisted suicide to elderly adults, including through Canadian-style "medical assistance in dying (MAID)" programs.

"The practical and financial ability of the government and society to support older people will be strained," he said. "There will be pressure to introduce measures."

Japan's endonym, Nippon, is translated as "the sun's origin"; Japan itself has consequently often been referred to as "the Land of the Rising Sun." Wilcox, however, said the country's cratering fertility paints a grimmer picture for the ancient country and for others that soon may follow. 

"I call it the 'Land of the Setting Sun,'" he said. "It's certainly a harbinger of where many advanced countries are heading."

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CNA Staff, Apr 10, 2024 / 10:50 am (CNA).

An Italian Catholic watchdog group says a blasphemous ad featuring a priest consecrating potato chips in place of Eucharistic hosts has been ordered pulled from the airwaves.

The Italian Association of Radio and Television Listeners (Associazione Italiana Ascoltatori Radio e Televisione, AIART) on Monday had called for the immediate suspension of an advertisement by the Italian company Amica Chips, one that the group said "offends the religious sensitivity of millions of practicing Catholics." AIART says on its website that its mission is "inspired by Catholic principles."

In the advertisement, an abbess fills a ciborium with potato chips instead of Eucharistic hosts prior to Mass, after which a priest distributes one of the potato chips to a nun during holy Communion. 

As the communicants are visibly surprised to discover the chips in place of hosts, the abbess looks on unconcernedly as she eats from the bag of crisps. 

The commercial evinced a "lack of respect and creativity," AIART said this week, arguing that the ad was a "telltale sign of disrespect for users, their cultural and moral identity, and their dignity as persons."

On Tuesday AIART said on its website that the Institute of Advertising Self-Discipline, Italy's private advertising standards authority, had "upheld our appeal for the immediate suspension of the commercial."

The Institute's Control Committee "has enjoined the parties involved to desist from the broadcast of such a campaign," AIART reported, with the committee citing regulations that commercials "must not offend moral, civil, and religious convictions."

Giovanni Baggio, the president of AIART, said in the Tuesday release that the group "??urge[s] creatives to be more respectful of cultural and religious identities and to work for commercials that are inclusive and that appeal to all users in a way that is careful not to create discomfort and disapproval."

"Let us work together for a civilization that needs to grow in respect for cultural and religious identities," Baggio said.

Amica Chips did not immediately respond to a request for comment from CNA on Wednesday morning.

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CNA Staff, Apr 10, 2024 / 06:00 am (CNA).

To mark its 10th anniversary, the St. Pio Foundation in the United States has released 10 never-before-seen photographs of St. Pio of Pietrelcina, better known as Padre Pio.

The candid images show the Italian priest celebrating Mass and deep in prayer but also in lighter moments of laughter, rarely captured of the friar. The foundation's director, Luciano Lamonarca, discovered the photos when visiting photographer Elia Saleto's studio.

EWTN News Vatican correspondent Colm Flynn sat down with Lamonarca in a recent interview for "EWTN News Nightly" to discuss the images. One of the most surprising photos was of Padre Pio smiling. 

"One is nice because [it shows everybody] hey, Padre Pio is smiling. Yes, he was smiling because he was a man. So we always think that Padre Pio was a serious man. We know that faith is also about laughing … sometimes," Lamonarca said.

The professional opera singer grew up in Italy aware of the giant figure that Padre Pio was in the Catholic Church but didn't have a particular devotion to the saint until he and his wife faced the great suffering of having a stillborn baby and receiving the news that they would probably not be able to have more children. 

It was then that the couple turned to Padre Pio's intercession and, in the process, began to learn more about his life. 

Lamonarca said he learned about Padre Pio's "simplicity and humility." 

"He was the grandfather I never had," he told Flynn.

Lamonarca said he felt such a connection to the saintly friar that he wanted to help bring his story and message to as many people as possible — especially in the United States — so he founded the St. Pio Foundation.

Today Lamonarca and his wife live in the United States with their son, Sebastian, who was born the year after Lamonarca founded the foundation. As an Italian living in the U.S., he is passionate about strengthening the ties between the two countries in the name of St. Pio.

In addition to the release of the photos to celebrate its 10th anniversary, the foundation has also produced a documentary drama about Padre Pio, which will air on EWTN later this year.

The full interview with Lamonarca on "EWTN News Nightly" can be viewed below.

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Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Apr 9, 2024 / 15:45 pm (CNA).

The Arizona Supreme Court has ruled that a law protecting unborn life from abortion beginning at conception can soon take effect. 

The court ruled that state law does not guarantee a right to an abortion and that an 1864 law prohibiting all abortions can take effect in 14 days, pending any further constitutional challenges.

The 1864 law allows for exceptions in cases in which the mother's life is in danger but does not grant exceptions for cases of rape or incest. 

The 4-2 decision issued Tuesday found that the Arizona Constitution "does not create a right to, or otherwise provide independent statutory authority" for abortion and that any guarantees to a right to abortion in the state were predicated on the now overturned Roe v. Wade precedent.

"To date, our Legislature has never affirmatively created a right to, or independently authorized, elective abortion. We defer, as we are constitutionally obligated to do, to the Legislature's judgment, which is accountable to, and thus reflects, the mutable will of our citizens," the ruling said.

"The Legislature has demonstrated its consistent design to restrict elective abortion to the degree permitted by the Supremacy Clause and an unwavering intent since 1864 to proscribe elective abortions absent a federal constitutional right."

The decision negates a lower court's ruling that a 15-week abortion limit passed by the Legislature in 2022 voided the 1864 law. 

There is a 14-day stay on the enforcement of the law.

This means that the law protecting life from conception remains blocked for now but could go into effect in a few weeks.

A new constitutional amendment guaranteeing a right to abortion will likely be on the ballot in Arizona this November. Arizona for Abortion Access PAC has filed language with the Secretary of State that could result in a vote on abortion in 2024. On April 3, the group surpassed the required number of signatures to get their initiative on the November ballot. The secretary of state's office has yet to verify the signatures which must happen before the initiative will officially be on the ballot.

If this abortion amendment passes it would likely overrule today's decision, invalidating most of the state's pro-life laws.

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ACI Prensa Staff, Apr 9, 2024 / 16:30 pm (CNA).

The official portrait of Servant of God Niña Ruíz-Abad was presented April 7 during the opening of the diocesan phase of her cause for canonization at St. William Cathedral in the town of Laoag located in the Ilocos Norte region of the Philippines.

If canonized, the young Filipina, who died in 1993 at age 13, could become one of the youngest saints in history.

The proceedings, including the Mass celebrated by Renato Mayugba, the bishop of Laoag, were posted on Facebook. The ceremony began with a procession of members of the Diocese of Laoag followed by the reading of Ruíz-Abad's biography and the presentation of documents to the bishop, who approved them as legitimate.

Next, the documents were handed over to the officials of the diocesan tribunal, appointed by the local bishop, who will receive the testimonies of the people who knew the servant of God. This tribunal does not issue any ruling because it is reserved to the Vatican Dicastery for the Causes of Saints.

The documents also included testimonies of alleged miracles that may have occurred through the intercession of Ruíz-Abad before the opening of the canonization process. In one case, a student at Holy Spirit Academy in the city of Laoag had been seriously sick and said she was miraculously cured after praying to the Filipina teenager.

During the ceremony, Ruíz-Abad's first relic was also unveiled, which consisted of a reliquary with a small piece of cloth that came from her clothing.

Ruíz-Abad, who died in August 1993, had a great impact through her devotion to God and her acts of charity despite suffering from hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, an incurable heart disease that was diagnosed with when she was 10 years old.

Thirty years after her death, in July 2023, the formal request to open an investigation into the life of the Filipina teenager was approved by the Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines (CBCP).

The CBCP previously noted that Ruiz-Abad could serve as a "good model of piety and fortitude" for today's youth.

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA's Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.

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CNA Staff, Apr 9, 2024 / 17:00 pm (CNA).

The National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) approved a policy on Monday that stated that biological men cannot compete in women's sports in NAIA-sponsored college sports. 

The NAIA includes 249 schools across the U.S. and Canada, most of which are small, private colleges. 

Catholic colleges such as Benedictine College in Kansas, Ave Maria University in Florida, Loyola University in New Orleans, and Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College in Indiana are members of the league. Texas A&M University-San Antonio is also a member. 

The decision, in a 20-0 vote, followed a December survey that found widespread support for the proposed rule among the association's members. Of the 68 schools that responded to the survey, 58 were in favor of the policy change, according to a CBS report.

"We believed our first responsibility was to create fairness and competition in the NAIA," NAIA president Jim Carr told CBS Sports. "We also think it aligns with the reasons Title IX was created." 

The new policy requires that students who participate in NAIA-sponsored women's sports must be biologically female and not under the influence of any masculinizing hormone therapy. 

Female athletes who take masculinizing hormones cannot compete in NAIA-sponsored women's sports but may participate in internal activities such as workouts, practices, and teams, according to the individual college's discretion, the policy stated.

The NAIA's policy does not specify sex for NAIA-sponsored male sports, meaning that women taking masculinizing hormones may participate in male sports if they wish.

The policy will go into effect Aug. 1.

The decision follows recent controversy over University of Pennsylvania swimmer Lia Thomas, a biological male, winning an NCAA Division I Championship. 

Riley Gaines, who competed against Thomas, has been outspoken about her opposition to allowing male athletes to compete in women's sports. 

Gaines and more than a dozen other female athletes filed a lawsuit against the National Collegiate Athletics Association (NCAA) in March. The suit alleged that allowing men to compete in women's competitions denies women protections promised under Title IX and that the decision "subject[ed] women to a loss of their constitutional right to bodily privacy."

"Title IX was enacted by Congress to increase women's opportunities; therefore, no policy which authorizes males to take the place of women on women's college sports teams or in women's college sports locker rooms is permissible under Title IX," the complaint read.

Gaines applauded the NAIA's move in a post on X, noting that the NAIA "becomes the first national college governing body to mandate athletes compete with their sex."

A recent Vatican document released Monday affirmed the Catholic Church's teaching on human dignity and addressed a variety of modern issues including transgenderism.

The Vatican declaration noted that "all attempts to obscure reference to the ineliminable sexual difference between man and woman are to be rejected" while also condemning any violence or aggression toward individuals based on sexual orientation.

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CNA Staff, Apr 9, 2024 / 17:30 pm (CNA).

Catholic bishops in the European Union on Tuesday reiterated that a right to abortion can never be a "fundamental" right ahead of a Thursday vote related to the insertion of a "right to abortion" in the European Union's Charter of Fundamental Rights. 

A draft resolution set to be voted on April 11 would amend the EU's charter, which first came into force in 2009, to include the assertion that "everyone has the right to bodily autonomy, to free, informed, full, and universal access to sexual and reproductive health and rights, and to all related health care services without discrimination, including access to safe and legal abortion."

The Commission of the Bishops' Conferences of the European Union (COMECE), based in Brussels and made up of bishops delegated by the bishops' conferences of the more than two dozen member states of the European Union, speaks frequently in support of Catholic values in Europe, particularly against abortion and for the protection of persecuted Christians in other countries.

"The promotion of women and their rights is not related to the promotion of abortion," COMECE said in an April 9 statement.

"We work for a Europe where women can live their maternity freely and as a gift for them and for society and where being a mother is in no way a limitation for personal, social, and professional life. Promoting and facilitating abortion goes in the opposite direction to the real promotion of women and their rights."

The EU Charter of Fundamental Rights cannot include rights that are not recognized by all and are "divisive," the bishops noted. 

"The right to life is the fundamental pillar of all other human rights, especially the right to life of the most vulnerable, fragile, and defenseless, like the unborn child in the womb of the mother, the migrant, the old, the person with disabilities, and the sick. The Church has always taught this," the bishops continued. 

The European Parliament is a directly-elected body made up of over 700 legislators from EU member states and tasked with adopting EU legislation. Changing the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights to include abortion would require unanimous agreement from all member states, the body says. 

The enshrining of abortion rights in the EU's rights charter has long been debated. Abortion activists have for years pushed for the modification to union law, with initiatives such as the Simone Veil Pact calling for broad abortion rights throughout the continent. 

In contrast to the highly permissive legal framework found in many U.S. states before and after Roe v. Wade, many European countries restrict abortion after 12 to 14 weeks of pregnancy; some European Union member countries also impose waiting periods and other regulations. 

In January 2022, French President Emmanual Macron called upon the European Union to enshrine abortion in law, which Macron said would "give new life to our set of rights" there. In a statement at the time, COMECE expressed "deep concern and opposition" to the idea. COMECE noted at the time that that there is no "right" to abortion enshrined in European or international law.

Earlier this year, France became the first country in Europe to enshrine a "right to abortion" in its constitution.

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CNA Staff, Apr 9, 2024 / 12:30 pm (CNA).

Baltimore Archbishop William Lori on Monday attended a hearing at a U.S. bankruptcy court in which several witnesses testified on the abuse they endured at the hands of Church officials. 

The archdiocese said in a release on Monday that the archbishop "attended [the hearing] in which victim-survivors of child sexual abuse in the Catholic Church offered statements as part of the proceedings associated with the archdiocese's filing for Chapter 11 reorganization." 

The archdiocese filed for bankruptcy in September of last year in response to a looming wave of sex-abuse-related lawsuits. Lori at the time said filing for bankruptcy ensured that "victim-survivors will be equitably compensated" and the Church would be able to "continue its mission and ministries."

After the sealed hearing on Monday at U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Maryland, Lori said he was "deeply grateful to the victim-survivors for their courage today [and] moved by their heartrending experience." 

"To the victim-survivors who long to hear that someone is sorry for the trauma they endured and for its life-altering consequences — I am deeply sorry," the archbishop said. 

"I offer my sincerest apology on behalf of the archdiocese for the terrible harm caused to them by representatives of the Church. What happened to them never should have occurred. No child should ever, ever suffer such harm."

The archbishop in his statement urged that "the focus today be on the courage and bravery of the women and men who offered their statements and to those they represent."

The archdiocese said on Monday that meeting with abuse victims is "part of the Church's pastoral response to those who have courageously reported their abuse." 

"That response also includes comprehensive policies that seek to root out abuse from the life of the Church and support victim-survivors in ways that contribute to their healing," the statement said.

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CNA Staff, Apr 9, 2024 / 13:00 pm (CNA).

A Catholic university in New Jersey returned to its historic tradition of naming a "priest-president" following the previous president's abrupt resignation and lawsuit against the school. 

Seton Hall University, one of the oldest diocesan-run universities in the nation, on April 2 announced Monsignor Joseph Reilly as the 22nd president of the university. Reilly is an alumnus of the university and the current vice provost of academics and Catholic identity.

The 168-year-old university had a "priest-president" for 146 years of its history, and Reilly's appointment marks a "return" to the tradition, the university press release noted.

Reilly will take over from interim president Katia Passerini, who took up the role after former Seton Hall president Joseph Nyre's resignation in July 2023.

Nyre and his wife, Kelli, filed a lawsuit alleging that the former chairman of the university's board of regents, Kevin Marino, had intimidated Nyre and sexually harassed his wife by kissing and touching her.

The suit alleged that the university violated New Jersey's Conscientious Employee Protection Act. Nyre also alleged that Seton Hall engaged in discrimination and retaliation, and breach of the separation and general release agreement.

Laurie Pine, a spokeswoman for the school, said the allegations were "completely without merit" in a February statement.

An independent financial review uncovered a series of embezzlement schemes by a "small number of trusted, longtime employees of Seton Hall Law," Marino and Nyre announced in a joint email to the university in December 2022.

The university, which is home to Immaculate Conception Seminary and St. Andrew's Hall seminary, also suffered under the leadership of the disgraced former cardinal and former archbishop of Newark Theodore McCarrick.

McCarrick "used his position of power as then-archbishop of Newark to sexually harass seminarians," according to a university statement in 2019. 

Seton Hall has about 10,000 students, including 6,000 undergraduates. Cardinal Joseph Tobin, the archbishop of Newark and chair of the board of trustees, and president of the board of regents, said in an April 2 statement that he is "confident" that Reilly will be "an outstanding president."

"In my service with Monsignor Reilly on the board of trustees, he impressed me with his abiding faith, keen intellect, and genuine care for the entire university," he said.  

The current chair of the board of regents and the presidential search committee, Hank D'Alessandro, said that Reilly "was the ideal choice."

"He possesses a deep faith in God and a demonstrable commitment to nurturing our students to greatness as we advance among the nation's foremost Catholic universities," D'Alessandro said in the statement. 

"There is no one better suited to leading the university at this moment — a time when Seton Hall stands at the cusp of extraordinary progress," he said. 

Reilly attended Seton Hall Prep and graduated from Seton Hall University in 1987. After he was ordained a priest in 1991, he returned as rector of the college seminary in 2002. 

Reilly served as dean of the Immaculate Conception Seminary School of Theology from 2012 to 2022 and most recently served as vice provost of academics and Catholic identity. 

Reilly said he is both "profoundly grateful" and "exceedingly energized" to take on the role.

"Seton Hall is the place where I have come to know the truth about God, about who I am before God, and about what contribution to society that God is inviting me to make," he said. 

In 2005, St. John Paul II named Reilly as a chaplain to his holiness, and in 2015 Pope Francis appointed him as a missionary of mercy. 

Reilly has a bachelor's degree in sacred theology from the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, a licentiate in sacred theology from Pontificio Istituto Teresianum in Rome, and a doctorate in educational administration from Fordham University.   

Reilly also served on the Faithful Citizenship Strategy Committee and the Catholic Social Teaching Task Force for the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. 

"I cannot wait to engage our community as together we strive to bring new life to the timeless Catholic mission that makes Seton Hall unique among American universities," Reilly said. 

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