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Lima Newsroom, Jan 22, 2025 / 16:45 pm (CNA).

The seminary of the Diocese of Matagalpa, Nicaragua, has been confiscated by the country's dictatorship. The confiscation was first reported by the Nicaraguan newspaper Mosaico CSI. According to the outlet, at the time of the confiscation there were at least 30 students in formation at the seminary.

St. Aloyisius Gonzaga Major Seminary of Philosophy is located in the Diocese of Matagalpa, whose exiled bishop is Rolando Álvarez, who has been living in exile since January 2024 after serving almost one year in prison on the charge of treason.

In a post on X, researcher Martha Patricia Molina denounced that in addition to confiscating the seminary, the government of President Daniel Ortega has "also increased surveillance of priests in the diocese." Molina accused the dictatorship of aiming "to completely stop priestly formation" and "annihilate and eliminate the Diocese of Matagalpa." 

In addition to the seminary, the regime also confiscated on Jan. 16 the La Cartuja Pastoral Center of the Diocese of Matagalpa.

In a statement to ACI Prensa, CNA's Spanish-language news partner, Molina, the author of "Nicaragua: A Persecuted Church," explained what she believes could happen with the confiscated seminary.

"I think the same thing will happen as happened with the rest of the properties that the dictatorship has confiscated from the Catholic Church: They will occupy them to convert them into a public building or they will sell the property, or they will convert it into a school. We don't know what the ultimate goal of this occupation is."

The truth, she warned, "is that the dictatorship continues to violate and persecute religious freedom in Nicaragua."

After recalling that the chancery, Álvarez's residence, has already been confiscated, the researcher in exile warned that in Matagalpa, the bishop is working only with 30% of his clergy," who are also "under greater surveillance."

"The priests live in fear of being "abducted and later expelled from the country. I believe that this is part of this whole diabolical plan of the dictatorship, of wanting to 'atheize' the country and then 'satanize it,'" Molina charged.

"They want to uproot the faith of the Catholic people. The Diocese of Matagalpa, the laity, are very Catholic, they very much love the Catholic Church. And so [the regime] intends to completely eliminate the presence of the Church."

Matagalpa and Estelí

Matagalpa is the diocese of Álvarez, who was arrested, kept under house arrest, and later sentenced to 26 years in prison in a questionable judicial process. He was deported in January 2024 to Rome, where he now lives in exile.

Estelí has ??not had a bishop since mid-2021. Álvarez was then appointed apostolic administrator, and in his absence Father Frutos Valle was appointed as administrator "ad omnia," allowing him to carry out all ordinary functions of pastoral governance except those reserved to a bishop. Valle has also been detained by the dictatorship.

Molina told ACI Prensa that Jan. 26 will mark six months since the priest has been confined to a formation house that he cannot leave. The reasons for his detention are not known, "although the dictatorship has no reason other than the fact that he is a Catholic priest in order to repress him."

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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Lima Newsroom, Jan 22, 2025 / 17:15 pm (CNA).

The Sodality of Christian Life has reported that between May 2016 and December 2024 it provided reparations to 83 people who were victims of sexual, psychological, and power abuse through out-of-court settlements.

According to the report published Tuesday on its website, of the total number of cases given reparations, 15 were for the sexual abuse of minors between ages 11 and 17, 18 were for the sexual abuse of adults, and 50 were for other types of abuse.

The document was initially presented on Jan. 15 to the members of the general assembly of the apostolate held in Aparecida, Brazil.

The text indicates that the greatest number of cases that were given reparations were for abuse committed in the 1990s and 2000s, with 39 cases in the first period and 29 in the second.

The report also indicates that the reparations to which the victims agreed consist of academic and therapeutic support and financial compensation, and that the total amount is $5,348,000.

Of this amount, $336,000 was used for therapy and $5,012,000 for compensation.

In its report, the Sodalitium Christianae Vitae (SCV, by its Latin acronym) reiterates its request for forgiveness and affirms that "it is an institutional duty to take concrete actions to repair the damage caused, beyond what civil or canonical justice may determine."

"Reparation aims to be an act of justice that seeks to contribute to the person who has experienced some type of abuse by a member or former member of the Sodalitium being able to heal the wound that his or her dignity suffered," the report states.

On Monday, the SCV confirmed that it was dissolved by the decision of Pope Francis.

According to the Infovaticana portal, the dissolution decree "refers to the immorality of the founder, Luis Fernando Figari, as an indication of the nonexistence of a founding charism and, therefore, the lack of ecclesial legitimacy for the permanence of the institution."

Figari was expelled from the SCV by Pope Francis in August 2024. The Holy See had already sanctioned him in 2017 and prohibited him from having contact with any member of this society after it was proven that he committed sexual and power abuse.

The full text of the dissolution decree is not yet known.

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, Jan 22, 2025 / 17:45 pm (CNA).

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) under President Donald Trump this week rescinded Biden-era guidelines that previously required Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents to seek their superior's approval before arresting people at or near "sensitive locations" such as churches, hospitals, or schools.

The "sensitive locations" policy began in 2011 with a memo from then-ICE director John Morton. It precluded ICE agents from carrying out immigration enforcement actions in locations like hospitals, places of worship, schools, or during events such as weddings or parades unless there is an urgent need, such as a person who poses an imminent threat or if the agents have sought higher approval to do so.

The Biden administration later issued an expanded definition of "sensitive locations," which added places like playgrounds, homeless shelters, emergency response centers, and domestic violence shelters.

The order was signed by Acting Homeland Security Secretary Benjamine Huffman, who is serving as head of the agency pending the confirmation of South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem.

"This action empowers the brave men and women in CBP [Customs and Border Protection] and ICE to enforce our immigration laws and catch criminal aliens — including murders [sic] and rapists — who have illegally come into our country," a DHS spokesperson said Jan. 21.

"Criminals will no longer be able to hide in America's schools and churches to avoid arrest. The Trump administration will not tie the hands of our brave law enforcement and instead trusts them to use common sense."

The possibility of the policy change had been telegraphed in December, when three unnamed sources stated that Trump planned to change the policy as soon as his first day in office as part of his broader immigration agenda. Trump on Monday signed a series of executive orders on immigration, including several that put into motion his campaign promises to close the border to asylum seekers and to carry out mass deportations of people residing in the U.S. illegally — a plan numerous Catholic leaders have criticized as unjust. 

Catholic and other Christian leaders had spoken out with "grave concern" over Trump's plans to end the "sensitive locations" policy. The Catholic bishops of Arizona in December argued that raids at "sensitive locations" like churches would violate basic human rights, including religious freedom and the right to family unity, and undermine societal stability by discouraging undocumented immigrants from seeking essential services.

Commenting on the then-prospective change, the Catholic Legal Immigration Network Inc. (CLINIC), a group launched by the U.S. bishops in 1988 to support community-based immigration programs and represent low-income migrants, said in December it is "deeply concerned about any changes that would undermine the safety and well-being of immigrants and their families."

"Sensitive locations — such as houses of worship, schools, and hospitals — are sanctuaries where individuals seek solace, education, and critical care without fear of intimidation or detention," Anna Gallagher, CLINIC's executive director, said in a statement to CNA.

"This policy has long recognized the importance of these spaces for fostering trust and community stability. Rescinding it would not only disrupt families and communities but could also deter individuals from accessing essential services, such as education and health care, or practicing their faith freely … We call for the preservation of protections at sensitive locations to ensure immigrants and their families can live without fear and fulfill their basic needs, including the practice of religion."

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CNA Staff, Jan 22, 2025 / 15:15 pm (CNA).

The president of the U.S. bishops' conference on Wednesday criticized some of President Donald Trump's initial executive orders on key issues including immigration and capital punishment, warning that harm could be done to "the most vulnerable among us."

Trump upon taking office on Monday signed a series of executive orders that included tough restrictions on immigration, a directive in favor of the death penalty, a withdrawal from a key global climate pact, and an order affirming the reality of biological sex.

U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) president Archbishop Timothy Broglio on Wednesday said in a statement that he took issue with some of the orders, calling them "deeply troubling."

"Some provisions contained in the executive orders, such as those focused on the treatment of immigrants and refugees, foreign aid, expansion of the death penalty, and the environment, are deeply troubling and will have negative consequences, many of which will harm the most vulnerable among us," Broglio wrote.

Regarding the executive order on biological sex, Broglio expressed agreement with Trump.

"Other provisions in the executive orders can be seen in a more positive light, such as recognizing the truth about each human person as male or female," Broglio said. 

Broglio stressed that neither the Catholic Church nor the USCCB is aligned with "any political party." The Church's teachings "remain unchanged" regardless of political leadership, he said. 

The prelate pointed to the 2025 Jubilee Year and said the U.S. bishops prayed that "as a nation blessed with many gifts, our actions demonstrate a genuine care for our most vulnerable sisters and brothers, including the unborn, the poor, the elderly and infirm, and migrants and refugees."

"It is our hope that the leadership of our country will reconsider those actions which disregard not only the human dignity of a few, but of us all," the archbishop said. 

The USCCB said it would publish further information on the executive orders on its website. 

Trump's withdrawal from the Paris climate accord represented the second time the president has pulled the country from the global environmental pact; he first withdrew from the agreement in 2020. Then-President Joe Biden rejoined the agreement in 2021. 

Trump's pro-death penalty order was largely seen as a rebuke of Biden's earlier policies on the death penalty, including a 2021 moratorium on federal executions as well as Biden's December 2024 commutation of 37 prisoners on federal death row.

Trump's immigration orders, meanwhile, were the culmination of several years' worth of political promises to crack down on illegal crossings at the southern U.S. border. The president has vowed to enact major deportations of illegal immigrants living in the U.S.

Earlier this month Pope Francis strongly condemned Trump's mass deportation plans in the United States, saying "if this is true it is a disgrace."

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Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jan 22, 2025 / 10:20 am (CNA).

Policies related to immigration, gender ideology, abortion, and in vitro fertilization (IVF) are among the top religious liberty concerns heading into 2025, according to a report published by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB).

The USCCB Committee for Religious Liberty on Jan. 16 issued its Annual Report on the State of Religious Liberty, which highlights the legislative actions, potential executive actions, and U.S. Supreme Court cases the bishops are closely watching.

"We can become anxious that our unpopular positions on issues such as the dignity of all human life and the nature of marriage and the human person require us to compromise our integrity in order to secure political victories," Bishop Kevin Rhoades of the Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend, Indiana, wrote in the foreward of the document.

"This jubilee year offers us a chance to reflect on the necessity of patience and long-suffering in our work to bear witness to the truth," added Rhoades, who chairs the USCCB's religious liberty committee.

Immigrant-focused and other Catholic organizations

Although the document states that immigration policy "is not itself a religious liberty issue," it enters the realm of religious liberty "when religious charities and social services are singled out for special hostility, or when their bona fide religious motivations are impugned as pretextual for self-interest."

The bishops specifically reference Annunciation House, an El Paso-based nonprofit that Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is seeking to shut down. The attorney general has accused the Catholic nonprofit of "alien harboring" — an allegation they are contesting in the state Supreme Court.

Other Catholic nonprofits, including Catholic Charities affiliates, have also faced combative actions from state governments for allegedly facilitating illegal immigration — a claim the USCCB has denied.

The bishops also expressed concerns about a House Judiciary Committee investigation into Climate Action 100+ members, which are investors seeking to reduce carbon emissions. The report notes that "several of the companies are Catholic" and following the bishops' investment guidelines.

Additionally, the USCCB is closely following the Supreme Court case Catholic Charities Bureau v. Wisconsin Labor and Industry Review Commission, which will determine whether Wisconsin is violating the charity's First Amendment rights by denying its status as a religious organization because the state does not consider service to the poor to be a typical religious activity.

Bills and policies pushing gender ideology

The bishops are also watching legislation, executive actions, and one Supreme Court case related to gender ideology, including what critics say are efforts to violate religious liberty by implementing rules to prohibit "gender identity" discrimination.

On the legislative side, the bishops are closely following the federal Equality Act, which would prohibit discrimination based on a person's "gender identity." The proposal — which lawmakers have introduced several times in recent years — would exclude some religious liberty protections.

The bishops warned the bill would force Catholic hospitals to "perform and promote life-altering gender 'transitions.'" Some opponents have warned that the language would force hospitals to provide transgender surgeries to patients, including minors. 

Additionally, the USCCB is watching executive actions issued during former President Joe Biden's administration, which reinterpret "sex" discrimination to include discrimination based on a person's self-asserted gender identity. 

The Biden administration imposed that interpretation in education and health care regulations, which could have forced schools to blur sex-based separation of bathrooms, locker rooms, dormitories, and sports competitions and could have forced hospitals to perform transgender surgeries on patients, including minors.

President Donald Trump, however, reversed these rules in the first hours of his administration this week. The measures were also facing legal challenges.

The bishops will also follow an ongoing Supreme Court case that will determine whether Tennessee's ban on minors receiving transgender drugs and surgeries constitutes a form of "sex" discrimination.

Abortion, IVF, and contraception

The bishops are also following abortion, IVF, and contraception mandates that could have an effect on religious liberty. 

On the legislative front, the bishops remain concerned about the Women's Health Protection Act, which would legalize abortion nationwide and could override "conscience laws, state and federal, that protect the right of health care providers and professionals, employers, and insurers not to perform, assist in, refer for, cover, or pay for abortion," according to the bishops.

The bishops are also following contraception and abortion-related mandates imposed by the Biden administration, including an Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) rule that reinterprets "sex" harassment to include discrimination based on a woman's decision to have or not have an abortion. 

The rule requires that employers make accommodations for a woman who receives an abortion, which could include mandatory leave. These laws are being challenged in court.

Another concern for bishops is what they called an "intense bipartisan interest" in increasing the availability of IVF. They cited bills that introduce "an IVF mandate into Congress" by mandating insurance coverage, which the USCCB notes is "a mandate with which Catholic institutions cannot comply."

The bishops expressed support for the Conscience Protection Act, which would bolster religious liberty and conscience protections in health care and health insurance regulatory rules.

Other religious liberty concerns

The bishops are also following other issues that could have religious liberty implications, which includes education, antisemitism, "debanking," and cultural views about blasphemy. 

According to the bishops, "parental choice in education [is] one of the longest-running areas of concern for American Catholics." The document references the ongoing Supreme Court case that will determine whether the school board in Montgomery County, Maryland, violated the First Amendment rights of parents by refusing to let them opt out of coursework that promotes gender ideology. 

The bishops are also following some bills, such as the Equal Campus Access Act, which would ensure that religious groups on college campuses receive the same treatment as secular ones.

The document also expresses concern about "widespread antisemitism," which includes "reports of antisemitic incidents [that] emerged from the campus protests that began following the Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attack on Israel."

Additionally, the bishops noted certain unique concerns such as "debanking," which refers to banks closing accounts of people "on the basis of political and religious viewpoints." The document also highlights the cultural acceptance of blasphemy and sacrilege, specifically noting the mockery of the Last Supper at the Paris Olympics.

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Rome Newsroom, Jan 22, 2025 / 07:04 am (CNA).

Cardinal Christoph Schönborn, OP, concluded his term as archbishop of Vienna, Austria, on Wednesday, his 80th birthday, when Pope Francis accepted his resignation.

Schönborn, a theologian who led Austria's most populous archdiocese for three decades, helped write the Catechism of the Catholic Church and chaired the Austrian bishops' conference for 22 years. He is currently chairman of Pope Francis' Council of Cardinals.

The Vatican announced Jan. 22 that Pope Francis had accepted Schönborn's resignation and appointed an apostolic administrator, Father Josef Grünwidl, to oversee the Vienna archdiocese until the appointment of Schönborn's successor.

"The fact that Rome has created an interim solution shows us that Pope Francis has apparently not yet made a decision on who should be the next Archbishop of Vienna. Since the process is already well advanced, we hope for a decision in the coming weeks," archdiocesan spokesman Michael Prüller said in a statement Wednesday.

Cardinal Schönborn remains a member of the College of Cardinals, to which he was elevated in 1998, but at 80 years of age, he is no longer eligible to vote in a conclave.

In a video message to Vienna's Catholics on Wednesday, Schönborn said, "Above all, I have to thank God and I have to thank you all. The decisive experience in my almost 30 years in office has been: Church only works together, society only works together."

On Jan. 18, the cardinal celebrated a Mass of thanksgiving in St. Stephen's Cathedral for his nearly 30 years at the helm of the Vienna archdiocese.

In his homily, Schönborn reflected on his personal history of coming to Austria as a refugee at under one year of age and the welcome his family received.

"They come as strangers and make their home here, they become Austrians. They bring their languages, cultures and religions with them. They enrich, not without tensions, our country and shape its future," he said. "A sober look at the demographics of Austria and Europe must make it clear to us that the future will not be different. The success of this coexistence of residents and newcomers is crucial for our future."

In his last public appearance as archbishop, the cardinal also lamented Austria's shrinking Catholic population, saying he felt conflicted "between the joyful festival of thanksgiving that we are celebrating and the great farewell that so many people in our country are making, mostly in silence, from the Church."

"Will the Europe of cathedrals become a large open-air museum for tourists from all over the world?" he added.

The Church leader was born to a titled family in 1945 in Bohemia, in what was then Nazi Germany and is now part of the Czech Republic.

He grew up in western Austria, close to the border with Switzerland, and joined the Order of Preachers, also known as the Dominicans, in 1963. 

He was ordained a priest for the Archdiocese of Vienna in 1970. He went on to study sacred theology in Paris and in Regensburg, Germany, under the then Father Joseph Ratzinger — the future Pope Benedict XVI.

Schönborn was awarded a doctorate in sacred theology in the 1970s and was later made a member of the prestigious International Theological Commission of the Vatican.

He was editorial secretary of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, and in 1991, Pope John Paul II named the theologian an auxiliary bishop of Vienna.

After being appointed coadjutor archbishop of Vienna in April 1995, he succeeded Cardinal Hans Hermann Groër, O.S.B., as Archbishop of Vienna on Sept. 14, 1995.

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Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jan 21, 2025 / 16:00 pm (CNA).

Newly inaugurated President Donald Trump is scheduled to be in California visiting areas significantly damaged by wildfires on Friday, Jan. 24, the day of the 2025 March for Life in Washington, D.C.

During his first term, Trump attended and spoke at the March for Life in person in 2020 and addressed the crowd through video calls in 2019 and 2018. Although he did not address the crowd during his first year in office in 2017, then-Vice President Mike Pence attended and spoke at the rally.

Trump was the first president to attend the March for Life in person, but previous Republican presidents George H.W. Bush, George W. Bush, and Ronald Reagan all addressed the march remotely through a telephone or remote loudspeaker.

CNA reached out to the White House to ask whether Trump or anyone in his Cabinet or administration plans to address the crowd remotely or in person but did not receive a response by the time of publication.

The March for Life has not announced a remote appearance of Trump or any appearances of members of his administration at this time. However, speakers will include Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Rep. Chris Smith, R-New Jersey.

Wildfires have devastated parts of Southern California over the past few weeks and Trump has criticized the government response thus far as inadequate. In a post on TruthSocial earlier this month, Trump said California Gov. Gavin Newsom should resign and asserted: "This is all his fault."

At a rally on Sunday, the day before his inauguration, Trump said while speaking about the wildfires: "I'm going to go out there on Friday to see it and to get it moving back."

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Vatican City, Jan 21, 2025 / 16:30 pm (CNA).

In less than a month and a half, Pope Francis will install Franciscan nun Raffaella Petrini as head of the General Secretariat of the Government of the Vatican City State.

The change will take effect in March when Petrini, who currently serves as secretary in the same department, replaces Spanish Cardinal Fernando Vérgez, who will turn 80 in a month and a half.

The news was made public by the Holy Father during an interview on the Italian television program "Che Tempo Che Fa" ("What's the Weather Like?").

"We now have many women. For example, to select bishops on the commission there are three women selecting new bishops. The vice president of the Vatican Governorate, who will be governor in March, is a nun. In the Dicastery of the Economy, the vice president is a nun with two degrees … Women know how to manage things better than us," he said.

Petrini was born in Rome on Jan. 15, 1969. She graduated with a degree in political science from the Guido Carli International University of Studies and obtained a doctorate from the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas, where she currently works as a professor. She joined the Vatican Curia as an official in the former Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples.

This appointment follows others the pontiff has made to increase the profile of women in leadership positions in the Catholic Church. Earlier this month, Pope Francis appointed the first woman to head a Vatican department, Sister Simona Brambilla, former superior general in Italy of the Consolata Missionaries.

Brambilla currently heads the dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life together with Cardinal Ángel Fernández Artime, who has been named pro-prefect.

In 2022, Pope Francis confirmed the nun Alessandra Smerilli as prefect and undersecretary of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, a position she shares with Cardinal Michael Czerny. Both had already been interim directors of this body since Jan. 1 following the departure of Cardinal Peter Turkson.

Since 2016 the Vatican Museums have also been headed by a woman, Barbara Jatta, and in 2015 the pope appointed Mariella Enoc head of the Bambino Gesù Children's Hospital.

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, Jan 21, 2025 / 17:30 pm (CNA).

President Donald Trump on Monday signed an executive order seeking to overturn Supreme Court precedents restricting capital punishment and expand states' access to lethal drugs used in executions.

Trump in his order describes the death penalty as an "essential tool for deterring and punishing those who would commit the most heinous crimes and acts of lethal violence against American citizens."

The order directs the U.S. attorney general to actively pursue the death penalty in federal cases, particularly for murders of law enforcement officers and crimes committed by people residing in the country illegally and encourages states to do the same.

It also directs the attorney general to ensure that states have a sufficient supply of drugs for lethal injection and to seek the overruling of Supreme Court precedents that limit the authority of state governments to impose capital punishment.

"[E]fforts to subvert and undermine capital punishment defy the laws of our nation, make a mockery of justice, and insult the victims of these horrible crimes," the order reads.

"The government's most solemn responsibility is to protect its citizens from abhorrent acts, and my administration will not tolerate efforts to stymie and eviscerate the laws that authorize capital punishment against those who commit horrible acts of violence against American citizens."

The federal death penalty has been applied relatively sparingly since being reinstated in 1988 after a hiatus of several years. Since then, just 16 people have been put to death by the federal government — 13 during the first Trump administration, which restarted federal executions after a lengthy hiatus  — compared with nearly 1,600 people executed by the states during that time.

Trump's Jan. 20 order is sharply at odds with Catholic teaching on the death penalty. The Catechism of the Catholic Church, reflecting a 2018 update promulgated by Pope Francis, describes the death penalty as "inadmissible" and an "attack on the inviolability and dignity of the person" (No. 2267). Because of this teaching, the Church "works with determination for its abolition worldwide," the catechism continues. 

Catholic leaders in the U.S. and elsewhere, while expressing compassion for the victims of crimes, often speak in support of lifelong prison sentences for those who have committed those heinous crimes rather than the death penalty.

Krisanne Vaillancourt Murphy, executive director of the anti-death penalty group Catholic Mobilizing Network (CMN), criticized Trump's order Tuesday, saying in a statement to CNA that the order "makes no sense."

"??What we know about the death penalty is that it does not deter crime or make communities safer. It's immoral, flawed, and risky; arbitrary and unfair; cruel and dehumanizing. Both the state and federal death penalty systems are broken beyond repair and emblematic of a throwaway culture," Vaillancourt Murphy said. 

She said despite Trump's "regrettable declaration," CMN and other Catholics will continue to advocate and pray for an end to the death penalty at all levels of government in the U.S. 

"As faithful anti-death penalty advocates, we know lives hang in the balance. Our work will not be over until capital punishment has been completely abandoned at every level of government in the United States," she said. 

Under Trump during his first presidential term, Attorney General William Barr in July 2019 announced that the Department of Justice and the Federal Bureau of Prisons would resume federal executions after a hiatus of more than 15 years. All told, 13 inmates were executed in the final six months of Trump's first term, including the first woman to be executed by the federal government in nearly 70 years.

In July 2021, under President Joe Biden, Attorney General Merrick Garland issued a moratorium on federal executions while the Department of Justice conducted a review of its policies and procedures to ensure the death penalty is being applied "fairly and humanely." Despite overseeing the halting of new executions, the Biden administration sought to uphold the death sentences of several prisoners already convicted, including the 2013 Boston Marathon bomber.

In the waning days of the previous administration, Biden commuted the death row sentences of more than three dozen federal prisoners, noting that the order leaves in place the death sentences of three federal prisoners guilty of "terrorism and hate-motivated mass murder."

Catholic advocates, including the U.S. bishops, had urged the president to commute the sentences of the 40 people currently on federal death row in anticipation of Trump's second term. 

Regarding the 37 prisoners whose sentences were commuted, Trump's order directs the attorney general to evaluate the conditions in which they are incarcerated to "ensure that these offenders are imprisoned in conditions consistent with the monstrosity of their crimes and the threats they pose." It also directs the attorney general to explore avenues for further punishment, potentially including state-level capital charges. 

Pope Francis in December had even joined the call for the prisoners to be spared, praying that "their sentences may be commuted or changed."

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Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jan 21, 2025 / 12:00 pm (CNA).

A bill that would require the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to detain immigrants who entered the country illegally if they commit certain crimes passed the Senate as Catholic bishops reiterate their call for "meaningful immigration reform."

The Laken Riley Act would subject immigrants who entered the country illegally to detainment if they are charged with or arrested for burglary, theft, larceny, shoplifting, assault on an officer, or a crime that results in death or serious bodily injury. Those detentions could lead to subsequent deportation proceedings.

The House of Representatives passed a similar bill with the same name earlier this month but did not include assault on an officer or crimes that involve death or serious bodily injury in its version. House lawmakers can either pass the Senate version or offer their own amendments to the bill, which is expected to pass in some form.

Under current law, officials are allowed to detain immigrants who are in the country illegally when they commit those crimes but are not required to do so. The legislation is named after Laken Riley, a 22-year-old woman who was murdered by José Antonio Ibarra — a Venezuelan national who was in the country illegally and remained in the country after an earlier arrest for shoplifting.

Riley would have turned 23 years old on Friday, Jan. 10. 

The Republican-led bill received some bipartisan support, passing the House 264-159. The Senate version also received bipartisan support, passing the chamber 64-35. In both chambers, a minority of Democrats joined Republican lawmakers to advance the bills. No Republican in either chamber voted against their version of the bill.

"No family should have to go through what Laken's has endured," Rep. Mike Collins, R-Georgia, who introduced the legislation, said on Jan. 7 after the House passed the bill.

"A secure border [and being] pro-immigration are fully compatible," Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pennsylvania, said on X after joining the Republican majority to advance the bill. "I proudly voted AYE on [the] final passage of the Laken Riley Act."

Both bills would also allow states to file lawsuits against the federal government for failing to enforce immigration laws if harm is caused to the state or its residents. Under the proposed law, states could file lawsuits over a decision to release a person from custody or a failure to detain someone who has been ordered to be deported, among other things.

Bishops take no formal stance on bill

Although the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) often takes a position on bills related to immigration, USCCB Spokesperson Chieko Noguchi told CNA that the American bishops have not taken a formal position on this legislation.

Rather, Noguchi said the bishops "continue to urge Congress to pursue meaningful immigration reform that is consistent with the elements long promoted by the bishops." She provided a link to a January 2025 USCCB document titled "Catholic Elements of Immigration Reform."

"This includes safeguarding American communities and upholding the rule of law through targeted, proportional, and humane enforcement measures that ensure due process and demonstrate respect for human dignity," Noguchi said.

At least one prelate, Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio, has criticized the bill. Speaking to Crux, the bishop emeritus of Brooklyn called the bill and plans for mass deportation "a vigilante approach to a mythical problem that these people are hurting us."

"It's an unfortunate situation where you're not dealing with facts you're dealing with a prejudice or an idea that once we get rid of all of these undocumented people that the country's going to be in great shape," DiMarzio said.

CNA reached out to several bishops who represent dioceses near the southern border to ask their perspectives on the bill, but none were available to provide a comment.

Julia Young, a historian and professor at The Catholic University of America, told CNA that this legislation "doesn't fundamentally change the immigration system" with systemic reforms. She said that immigration remains a polarizing issue but that "both political parties now agree … our current immigration system is very broken."

Young, whose work primarily focuses on historical migration, said "concern and fear around immigration in the United States has been present throughout the [country's] history" and that "concern around immigrant crime has been persistent" as well. 

She said concern about crime has been invoked against Catholic immigrants historically, particularly against Irish immigrants in the 19th and 20th centuries who were "accused of being inherently more criminal."

The influx of Catholic immigrants spurred the Church's involvement in helping newcomers navigate the immigration system and led to the Church wading into American immigration policy debates, according to Young. At first, she said the Church's focus was on helping Catholic immigrants, but over time, "they began focusing on immigrants from all over the world; not just immigrants who are Catholics."

"The history of the Catholic Church in the United States is really linked to the history of immigration to the United States," Young said.

Chad Pecknold, a professor of historical and systematic theology at The Catholic University of America, told CNA "the Church has traditionally taught that the immigration issue is downstream from the right of nations to safeguard their common good" and that it's "reasonable to legislate" how certain crimes will affect a person's immigration status."

"The Catholic Church has a balanced view of what is essentially a prudential matter in which the common good takes precedence in considering who may or may not enter a country," Pecknold added. 

"Criminal activity should weigh heavily for lawmakers who should use their regnative prudence in arriving at decisions about immigration which are first and foremost right and just for their own people," Pecknold said.

President Donald Trump, who assumed office on Jan. 20, campaigned on a hard-line approach to illegal immigration, which includes a plan for the mass deportation of immigrants in the country illegally, starting with those who have committed crimes while in the United States.

El Paso Bishop Mark Seitz, who heads the USCCB Committee on Migration, has said he is "concerned" about the incoming president's deportation plans and that bishops will "raise our voice loudly" if the administration advances plans that violate human rights.

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