The Church of St. Luke

This photo taken on Jan. 15, 2024, shows a Chinese flag fluttering below a cross on a Christian church in Pingtan, in China’s southeast Fujian province. / Credit: Photo by GREG BAKER/AFP via Getty Images

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Nov 20, 2025 / 17:30 pm (CNA).

The Chinese Communist Party’s “ongoing assault against religious freedom” has national security implications for the U.S., according to co-chairs of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC).

Former Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kansas, who served as ambassador at large for international religious freedom in the first Trump administration, told the commission Nov. 20 that the United States needs to treat China’s religious freedom violations as a national security threat. 

Brownback cited a report listing 10 Catholic bishops detained by the Chinese government. “Ten Catholic bishops,” he said with emphasis, adding: “Do people even know they’re in prison?” Brownback called for China to be sanctioned by the Trump administration, pointing out the regime “has not paid a dime” for its religious freedom violations despite having been designated a country of particular concern (CPC).

Bob Fu, ChinaAid founder and president, told the panel about his experience advocating for religious freedom in China since immigrating to the U.S, revealing that in 2020 his home in Texas was surrounded by Chinese Communist Party agents who threatened his family and children, threatening him to stop his ministry with ChinaAid.

Grace Jin Drexel, the daughter of Pastor Ezra Jin, who was arrested at an underground church last month, recalled her father’s detention, expressing concern for her father’s health and calling on the Chinese government to release him and fellow detainees immediately and unconditionally. 

Since 2018, Drexel’s father has been under an exit ban from China, separated from family in the U.S. for more than seven years, she said, noting his church grew to the largest it has ever been, reaching tens of thousands of people per year who are under persecution prior to his arrest. 

A bipartisan group of senators, including Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and Jeff Merkley, D-Oregon, are urging the Trump administration to act on behalf of Pastor Jin.

Adherents to underground churches in China are not trying to subvert the state, Drexel said, but rather are “merely asking to be free from the Communist Party” in the context of worship, where God is at the center. 

Drexel also recalled her own experience of transnational harassment for her advocacy on behalf of her father, saying she received a threatening phone call from someone pretending to be a U.S. federal agent and has been followed and harassed by the CCP throughout Washington, D.C. 

Visibly emotional, she said: “Do not signal defeat of this trampling of human rights with your silence.”

Testifying before the commission led by Rep. Chris Smith, R-New Jersey, and Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, other witnesses included Ismail “Ma Ju” Juma, a Hui Muslim human rights advocate, and Bhuchung Tsering, who leads the International Campaign for Tibet (ICT) Research and Monitoring Unit.

Protecting U.S. religious freedom

Rep. Jim McGovern, D-Massachusetts, a member of the commission, emphasized the constitutional importance of religious freedom and the need for the U.S. to protect it. McGovern, who is Catholic, said the U.S. needs to protect religious freedom at home first for its position to carry real weight. 

He cited the Trump administration’s mass deportation efforts and its effect on the migrant community in the U.S. Catholic Church. He further cited the bishop of San Bernardino, who this past summer granted a Sunday Mass dispensation to migrants in his diocese who feared deportation. “

“Our voice would have more effect,” he said, “if the U.S. protected the religious freedom of people living in the U.S.”

Reem Alsalem (right), the United Nations special rapporteur on violence against women and girls, opposes surrogacy at an Oct. 9, 2025, U.N. event hosted by the Italian government. / Credit: ADF International

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Nov 20, 2025 / 17:00 pm (CNA).

The European Parliament and the United Nations have officially condemned the practice of surrogacy following reports of human rights violations against women and babies. 

Experts gathered on Nov. 19 for a meeting at the European Parliament that included U.N. Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women and Girls Reem Alsalem and Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) International’s Carmen Correas, who discussed the harms of surrogacy on women and children, according to an ADF press release.

The event, “Surrogacy: An Ethical and Political Challenge for Europe,” followed the release of a landmark report by Alsalem that highlighted widespread human rights violations globally as a result of surrogacy. The event also came after a resolution that stated the EU “condemns the practice of surrogacy … [and] calls on the [EU] Commission to take measures to support ending this phenomenon.”

Italian European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) Party Member of the EU Parliament Paolo Inselvini said at the event it has become clear that “a determined European front exists, committed to stopping reproductive exploitation across the globe.” He further emphasized the EU’s commitment to “abandon all ambiguity” and designate surrogacy as “a universal crime.” 

“Surrogacy treats women and children as commodities,” Correas said. “The European Union has taken an important step in acknowledging its inherent harms. We urge policymakers to move swiftly toward a clear, coordinated legal prohibition that protects the dignity and rights of all involved.”

Alsalem’s report was based on nearly 120 submissions in addition to video consultations with 78 people including commissioning parents, surrogacy agencies, and surrogate mothers. Alsalem called for member states to establish a universal ban on surrogacy, criminalizing the practice in all its forms.

Through her consultative process, the U.N. expert found surrogate mothers, who are most often from low-income and vulnerable backgrounds, and their children increasingly endure physical, emotional, and financial exploitation as well as violence and human trafficking.

The report further highlighted the experience of surrogate mothers being pressured into abortions by commissioning parents, including beyond 12 weeks of gestation, “through coercive tactics such as financial incentives, threats of legal action, or the withdrawal of support to both the mother and baby.” This often occurs when the child is found to have a disability, the report said.

In cases where the surrogate becomes pregnant with multiple children at once, commissioning parents may “also enforce a selective reduction,” or the killing of one or more of the undesired babies in utero.

Mary Help of Christians Basilica on the campus of Belmont Abbey College. / Credit: Rnrivas, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Nov 20, 2025 / 16:30 pm (CNA).

Here’s a roundup of the latest Catholic education news in the United States:

Retired Army general, Notre Dame professor to serve as president of Belmont Abbey College

Belmont Abbey College in North Carolina announced that Jeffrey Talley, a retired three-star lieutenant general in the U.S. Army and former tenured professor at the University of Notre Dame, will serve as its new president.

In a Nov. 18 press release announcing the appointment, Talley said the school has a “unique opportunity” to “help young men and women get a rigorous academic experience in a faith-filled environment that’s strong in its Catholic identity so they can go forth in a world that’s become so challenging, so complex, so difficult.”

Talley will assume the position of the college’s 21st president on Jan. 2, 2026. The chair of Belmont Abbey College’s board of trustees, Charles Cornelio, said in the release that the appointment comes after a seven-month search. 

Talley “is a person of deep Catholic faith who understands the mission of the college and will live it,” Cornelio said, highlighting the general’s decades-long history as a Benedictine oblate. 

“Leaders who are balanced both morally and professionally are in greater need than ever before. For this purpose, Belmont Abbey College exists,” Talley said. “I thank God for the opportunity to become part of the Belmont Abbey College family, where together we can bear the light of Christ in the world today.”

Notre Dame professor attempts to distribute contraceptives, Plan B on campus

A professor of gender studies at the University of Notre Dame attempted to use university space to facilitate the distribution of contraceptives and Plan B, according to a Nov. 19 report published by the student-run paper the Irish Rover.

Pamela Butler, who is the director of undergraduate studies for the school’s gender studies department, has reportedly been reserving rooms in violation of university code for the group “Irish 4 Reproductive Health,” according to the Rover.

School guidelines grant the use of university buildings and grounds for “recognized student groups.” The “reproductive health” group — which stated in the report it was “not affiliated with the university in any official capacity” — has been distributing free “resource bags” with condoms, Plan B, and information on abortion services for students in the university’s DeBartolo Hall.

The group also openly advertises the distribution of contraception on Instagram as well as “workshops” hosted on campus on “exploring the principles of pro-choice Catholicism, how Catholic teaching supports reproductive justice, and how these ideas inform advocacy.”

Minnesota Catholic institutions, including schools and universities, hit by pension deficit

The pension fund covering multiple Catholic schools and universities across Minnesota has been hit by an $800 million deficit, threatening retirement resources for thousands of current and former workers.

The pension manager, Christian Brothers Services, is asking employers to make increased contributions to compensate for the massive shortfall, according to a report in the Minnesota Star Tribune, which cited “a big loss in a hedge fund that cratered a few years ago” in 2020 as reason for the deficit.

Christian Brothers Services is a nonprofit organization that operates a church pension plan, one that is not bound by federal pension regulations, meaning pensioners are not eligible for federal payouts if their plans fail, according to the IRS.

The Chicago-based organization manages the pensions of over 40 schools across the Dioceses of New Ulm, Crookston, and St. Cloud, as well as lay workers, and workers at St. Mary’s University in Winona and Minneapolis.

Two schools have since pulled from the plan, according to the local report, while two others are planning to do so.

Pope Leo XIV waves to pilgrims gathered at his general audience on Oct.25, 2025. / Credit: Daniel Ibáñez/EWTN News

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Nov 20, 2025 / 15:30 pm (CNA).

Pope Leo XIV will hold a historic live digital conversation with American teenagers at the National Catholic Youth Conference (NCYC) on Friday. The faithful across the globe can also tune in to watch the encounter.

The Holy Father will hold the digital discussion with young Catholics amid the Nov. 20–22 NCYC, hosted by the National Federation for Catholic Youth Ministry.

The pope will speak at 10:15 a.m. ET on Nov. 21 and enter into dialogue with a group of high school students.

People attending NCYC in Indianapolis at Lucas Oil Stadium can watch the encounter at the event, but others across the world are able to join online from homes, schools, and parishes.

The exchange will be broadcast via a livestream available on EWTN YouTube. Viewers can also watch through the EWTN app or on EWTN’s cable channel.

This marks the first time that a pope will directly engage with U.S. youth in a live digital encounter at NCYC. More than 40 teens have participated in the dialogue planning process, and five of them will get the chance to speak directly with the Holy Father.

For other news about the pope’s discussion and NCYC, the faithful can stay informed on CNA’s live updates page.

The encounter in Indianapolis will feature opening remarks by Pope Leo XIV, youth representatives, and a live Q&A. / Credit: EWTN News

CNA Staff, Nov 20, 2025 / 15:00 pm (CNA).

The 2025 National Catholic Youth Conference will feature prayer, community, evangelization, and service among Catholic teenagers from Nov. 20–22 in Indianapolis. Follow CNA’s live coverage of the event here.

Watch the historic discussion with Pope Leo XIV live from the Vatican on Friday, Nov. 21, starting at 8:45 a.m. ET on EWTN YouTube:

U.S. Vice President JD Vance participates in a fireside chat with Breitbart Washington Bureau Chief Matt Boyle at the Andrew W. Mellon Auditorium on Nov. 20, 2025, in Washington, D.C. / Credit: Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Nov 20, 2025 / 14:25 pm (CNA).

Vice President JD Vance called border security “humanitarian” in response to comments from Pope Leo XIV about immigration policy in the United States.

“Border security is not just good for American citizens,” Vance said in an interview with Breitbart’s Matthew Boyle on Nov. 20. “It is the humanitarian thing to do for the entire world.”

Pope Leo XIV on Nov. 18 asked Americans to listen to U.S. bishops’ message opposing “the indiscriminate mass deportation of people” and urged humane treatment of migrants.

“No one has said that the United States should have open borders. I think every country has a right to determine who and how and when people enter,” the pope said.

Vance said he has followed the Holy Father’s comments closely as “a devout Catholic.”

“You may not know it, judging purely from the comments of some people on social media, but the Catholic Church’s views on this are actually quite clear,” Vance said.

“It’s that, yes, you must treat immigrants humanely,” Vance said. “On the other hand, every nation has the right to control its borders. And obviously, how you strike that balance is very important, but there’s a lot of room there to actually control your own borders for the sake of your own people.”

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ (USCCB) special message affirmed that countries have a “responsibility to regulate their borders and establish a just and orderly immigration system.” The Catechism of the Catholic Church says “the more prosperous nations are obliged, to the extent they are able, to welcome the foreigner.” 

U.S. bishops said they lamented the conditions in detention centers and lack of access to pastoral care. Bishops also said they “are saddened by the state of contemporary debate and the vilification of immigrants.”

Vance said “open borders” do not promote “[human] dignity, even of the illegal migrants themselves,” and cited drug and sex trafficking.

“When you empower the cartels and when you empower the human traffickers, whether in the United States or anywhere else, you’re empowering the very worst people in the world,” Vance said.

“My priority, my charge is to look after the people of the United States of America, and you cannot do that if you’re flooding the country with a ton of illegal immigrants and the drugs and the crime that they bring,” Vance said.

According to U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem this year, as of October 2025, nearly half a million immigrants without legal status in the country had been arrested. “70% of those individuals have criminal charges against them or have been convicted of those criminal charges,” Noem said.

The administration provides regular updates on “the worst of the worst” criminals they apprehend among the immigrant population without legal status in the country.

Meanwhile, multiple research studies have shown that overall, immigrants do not commit more crimes than U.S.-born people and are actually less likely to commit crimes. Stanford University economist Ran Abramitzky found that since the 1960s, immigrants are 60% less likely to be incarcerated than U.S.-born people.

A study by the libertarian Cato Institute that reviewed more than a decade of data found that immigrants, including those who enter the country illegally, have a lower crime rate than the native-born population.

For example, in 2023, the incarceration rate for native-born Americans was 1,221 for every 100,000 people. For legal immigrants, it was 319 for every 100,000, and for immigrants in the country illegally, it was 613 for every 100,000.

“Despite obstacles and prejudices, generations of immigrants have made enormous contributions to the well-being of our nation,” the U.S. bishops said.

Alice Kessler and Ellen Kessler attend the Circus Krone Christmas Premiere at Circus Krone on Dec. 25, 2022, in Munich, Germany. The twin sisters ended their lives by assisted suicide at their home in Grünwald, close to Munich, on Monday, Nov. 17, 2025. / Credit: Hannes Magerstaedt/Getty Images

CNA Deutsch, Nov 20, 2025 / 13:18 pm (CNA).

The Federal Association for the Right to Life has criticized the “praise” many have voiced about the recent assisted suicides of the 89-year-old Kessler twins in Germany.

The world's tallest monument of Our Lady of Fatima was inaugurated in Crato, located in Ceará state in northeastern Brazil. / Credit: Courtesy of Prefeitura do Crato/Screenshot

Sao Paulo, Brazil, Nov 20, 2025 / 12:48 pm (CNA).

The world’s tallest monument dedicated to Our Lady of Fátima was inaugurated in Crato, located in Ceará state in northeastern Brazil.

The National Catholic Youth Conference (NCYC) meets in Indianapolis at Lucas Oil Stadium starting Nov. 20, 2025. / Credit: Robin Marchant/Getty Images

Indianapolis, Indiana, Nov 20, 2025 / 11:34 am (CNA).

The National Catholic Youth Conference (NCYC) meets in Indianapolis for three days of prayer, community, evangelization, catechesis, and service for Catholic teenagers.

The 2025 theme is “I Am,” and the conference mission is for participants to encounter Christ and be empowered for discipleship. 

NCYC was created by the National Federation for Catholic Youth Ministry (NFCYM), an organization committed to advancing the field of pastoral ministry to young people in the United States. Founded with the support of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, the organization works to strengthen those who accompany young people as they encounter and follow Jesus Christ. 

The conference, from Nov. 20–22, will feature Catholic speakers, daily Mass and adoration, music and worship, breakout groups and workshops, and interactive exhibits with games, vendors, meetups, and live radio shows.

Attendees will also hear from the conference’s two emcees, Gian Gamboa​ and Sister Elfie Del Rosario, FMA. Gamboa​ is a Catholic speaker and musician who helps young people develop a personal relationship with Jesus so they can experience the fullness of the Catholic faith. 

Del Rosario, who has become known as “The Happy Nun,” is a Daughter of Mary Help of Christians, or Salesian Sisters of St. John Bosco. She joined the Salesian Sisters in 2009 and serves as the vocations director for the eastern U.S. province. Passionate about engaging with youth, she shares encouragement to bring them closer to Jesus.

Digital encounter with Pope Leo XIV

Attendees can attend Mass on Nov. 20 and start to check out the interactive exhibits and stadium setup. 

Friday will feature the main attraction of the 2025 conference — a digital encounter with Pope Leo XIV. Pope Leo will hold a 45-minute dialogue with young people from across the United States in Lucas Oil Stadium at 10:15 a.m. ET. A livestream of the discussion will be available on EWTN YouTube.

Cardinal Christophe Pierre, apostolic nuncio to the United States, is expected to attend NCYC along with several bishops including keynote speaker Bishop Joseph Espaillat, auxiliary bishop for the Archdiocese of New York. Other keynote addresses will be from author and missionary Meg Hunter-Kilmer and Sister Miriam James Heidland of the Sisters of Our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity, host of the podcast “Abiding Together.”

Themed exhibits based on the sacraments will be available throughout the weekend and will include interactive projects and acts of service. Vendors tailored to the young audience will be present including Motherboards, a Catholic skateboarding company, and Catalyst Catholic, a ministry helping young disciples, that will help lead a service project aimed to aid the homeless population. 

Breakout sessions and workshops will start Friday and go through Saturday. Students will hear from and hold discussions with missionaries, social media personalities, and musicians.

Teens will talk about family life, social media, discovering God’s calling, and discernment. Sessions also will target an adult audience for ministry leaders and chaperones including discussions on mental health and handling burnout. 

To conclude the conference, attendees plan to gather for a closing Mass on Saturday evening.

St. Joseph Cathedral, Buffalo, New York. / Credit: CiEll/Shutterstock

CNA Staff, Nov 20, 2025 / 10:40 am (CNA).

Advocates in New York state are petitioning a Catholic foundation there to help fund major pension shortages and church preservation efforts as well as to help support victims of clergy sex abuse.

In a Nov. 13 letter to the Mother Cabrini Health Foundation in New York City, representatives of the group Save Our Buffalo Churches, sexual abuse victims, and pensioners of the former St. Clare’s Hospital asked the foundation to help the three communities with the “profound hardship” they are experiencing.

Numerous parishes in Buffalo have been fighting diocesan-mandated closures and mergers over the past year. Hundreds of former workers of St. Clare’s, meanwhile, saw their pensions reduced or eliminated starting in 2018 due to major shortfalls. The hospital itself closed about a decade before.

Abuse victims, meanwhile, have “been locked in a legal morass, denied the long-term healing resources and institutional acknowledgment of the harm they endured,” the letter said.

The foundation arose in 2018 after the Diocese of Brooklyn sold the health insurer Fidelis Care. The organization, whose roughly $3.2 billion in assets came from that sale, is named after Mother Frances Xavier Cabrini, the first American recognized as a saint, who founded the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

The letter noted that Cabrini “devoted her life to the people others overlooked,” including immigrants and the poor.

“Guided by that legacy, we ask the foundation to explore emergency relief, stabilization funds, and community support initiatives” to help fund the three groups.

The letter-writers asked for a meeting with foundation leaders “to explore potential pathways for assistance aligned with both the foundation’s mission and the pressing needs of survivors, pensioners, and parish communities.”

Mary Pruski, who leads the Save Our Buffalo Churches group, told CNA that advocates in New York City would be following up with the foundation this week.

“This is a complex project and will bring much peace and healing across [New York state],” she said.

Pensioners with St. Clare’s Hospital are currently in the midst of a lawsuit brought by New York state against the Diocese of Albany for what the state attorney general’s office says was “[failure] to adequately fund, manage, and protect hospital employees’ hard-earned pensions.”

The prosecutor’s office alleges that the diocese “[failed] to take adequate measures” to secure the pension fund, including “failing to make any annual contributions to the pension for all but two years from 2000 to 2019 and hiding the collapse of the pension plan from former hospital workers who were vested in the plan.”

Parishioners in Buffalo, meanwhile, have challenged the diocesan parish merger and closure plan, with advocates securing a reprieve against the diocese at the state Supreme Court in July.

The state high court ultimately tossed the lawsuit out in September, ruling that the court had no jurisdiction over the dispute.