The Church of St. Luke

Activist and detransitioner Chloe Cole was among the speakers at a rally on the steps of the United States Supreme Court on Dec. 4, 2024, as justices heard oral arguments in a challenge to a Tennessee law banning transgender surgeries for minors. / Credit: Migi Fabara/CNA

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Dec 5, 2024 / 13:00 pm (CNA).

Demonstrators rallied on the steps of the United States Supreme Court in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday morning as justices heard oral arguments in a challenge to a Tennessee law banning transgender surgeries for minors.  

Speaking at the rally was activist and detransitioner Chloe Cole, who joined a chorus of opponents of “gender-affirming care” for children, calling the law a necessary step in protecting young people from what they described as irreversible medical interventions. 

Cole was joined by Daily Wire host Matt Walsh, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, and other advocates, medical professionals, and concerned parents speaking at a rally organized by the medical nonprofit Do No Harm. 

Tensions were high at times, as a rally organized by a coalition of trans-rights activists shared the space outside the nation’s highest court.

“What an absolute honor to be here on the steps of the Supreme Court speaking, surrounded by so many of my friends, my colleagues, and all the other brave souls who have pushed this battle forward,” Cole told those surrounding her. The 20-year-old detransitioner spoke through shouts of both approval and derision.

In her speech, Cole expressed confidence that “the Supreme Court is going to do the right thing” and is in the momentum of the movement against “gender-affirming care” for minors.

“The transitioning of children is so awful and horrific,” she declared, “that it’s managed to create this massive movement that has unified Democrats, Republicans, Christians, atheists, and really just about everybody to fight for the safety of our children.” 

Cole detransitioned after undergoing years of puberty blockers and an irreversible double mastectomy at the age of 15. She has shared her story across a variety of platforms and spoken widely about the dangerous effect of gender transition procedures on children.

“I’m grateful that the state of Tennessee has listened to the stories of victims like me, that they have pumped the brakes hard on this practice, that the Supreme Court is willing to listen so soon and set a precedent that will allow most of the nation to protect children,” she continued.

“I feel like the suffering that I went through as a child and the grief and the guilt that my mom and dad experienced while they had their healthy daughter ripped away from them was not in vain,” Cole added.

Cole told the audience she was confident the justices “understand how wrong this is.” 

“It doesn’t take a degree in biology to understand that a drug cocktail and a scalpel do not make a child the opposite sex,” she said. “You don’t have to be a biologist to know that no child is born in the wrong body, that children are perfectly made in God’s image.” 

Walsh, the leading figure in the documentary “What is a Woman?”, also underscored biology as a driving force behind his advocacy against transgender surgeries for minors.

“Biology is real,” he stated. “It is immutable. It is not subject to the whims of any individual or government or medical organization.” 

The Daily Wire host often discusses sex and gender-related news on his show and in his documentary “What is A Woman?”, where he tackles the highly contentious issue of gender identity and gender ideology. The film received widespread accolades from conservatives as well as hostility from transgender activists. 

Walsh described gender ideology as “deeply sinister,” stating to the crowd of both supporters and counterprotesters that gender ideology “is one of the greatest and most incomprehensible evils ever visited upon children in the whole history of the human race.” 

At several points during his address, advocates for trans rights shouted insults or attempted to rush the stage where he was speaking. 

“These are the truths that bring us to this spot on this day, that biology is a fact, that we have a duty to protect our children, that the trans agenda denies the fact of biology,” he said. “It is a distinct threat to our children — we affirm these truths [and] we call the Supreme Court to affirm them, too.”

The Tennessee law went into effect in July 2023 and prohibits doctors from performing transgender surgeries on or prescribing any drugs to facilitate a gender transition, such as puberty blockers or hormones to minor children under 18 years old.

It is being challenged by President Joe Biden’s Department of Justice (DOJ) and by families who live in the state, who are represented by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Tennessee.

The Supreme Court’s decision could have a wide-ranging effect across the country. There are currently 24 states that prohibit both transgender surgeries and drugs for minors. Another two states — New Hampshire and Arizona — prohibit the surgeries but not the drugs. Numerous state-level laws currently face legal challenges.

During an interview with “EWTN News Nightly” on Wednesday, Ethics and Public Policy Center resident expert Mary Rice Hasson told anchor Tracy Sabol that she was “cautiously optimistic” after hearing the oral arguments. 

Rice Hasson said she believes the justices were reluctant to “wade into something that they saw as really medically unsettled” or to grant transgender individuals protected status.

The court, she said, will “either grant some sort of protected status” or will “go and look at the purpose of the status and say, ‘This is not about sex discrimination or “transgender status,” this is about a legislature looking at the medical evidence and making a decision, and we are going to uphold the authority of the state.’ So I’m cautiously optimistic,” Rice Hasson concluded.

Pro-abortion activists march in Mexico City on Nov. 26, 2024. / Credit: Congress of the State of Mexico

Puebla, Mexico, Dec 5, 2024 / 11:00 am (CNA).

Over the past six years, the legalization of abortion has accelerated rapidly in Mexico, with 19 of the country’s 32 states taking steps to decriminalize it.

null / Credit: Andrii Yalanskyi/Shutterstock

Vatican City, Dec 5, 2024 / 10:00 am (CNA).

On Oct. 16, Italy’s Senate passed a bill making it possible to prosecute Italian citizens for pursuing surrogacy abroad.

U.S. national and rainbow flags are pictured on the U.S. embassy in Moscow on June 30, 2022. / Credit: NATALIA KOLESNIKOVA/AFP via Getty Images

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Dec 5, 2024 / 09:00 am (CNA).

After his inauguration on Jan. 20, President-elect Donald Trump could reverse the promotion of gender ideology and abortion in the Department of State (DOS) and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), according to those closely watching these issues.

Under President Joe Biden’s administration, officials have used USAID and DOS to promote transgenderism and other elements of gender ideology through grants. Efforts have also been made to leverage foreign aid programs and influence international financial institutions and the United Nations to pressure countries into embracing transgenderism and gender ideology. 

The administration ended policies that previously banned funding for foreign organizations that promote abortion in other countries as well.

“The Biden-Harris administration radicalized the federal bureaucracy to promote abortion and dangerous gender procedures and suppress opposition to their agenda,” Alliance Defending Freedom senior counsel Matt Bowman told CNA. 

“We hope President-elect Trump’s appointed leaders will restore the rule of law, respect biological reality, and stop targeting free speech,” Bowman added.

Trump tapped Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Florida, to serve as secretary of state, a position that requires confirmation by the Senate. The president-elect has not announced whom he will choose to lead USAID, which does need a Senate confirmation.

Rubio has been critical of what he calls “radical gender ideology” in the American health care system and the Democratic Party’s “extremism on abortion.” 

Trump also plans to establish a Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) led by Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy to identify government waste. In an op-ed published in the Wall Street Journal, the two DOGE leaders indicated that funding for international groups, particularly progressive groups, will be reviewed. 

Biden policies to promote gender ideology and abortion

The DOS issued a report in July that detailed tens of millions of dollars going to projects that promote “LGBTQI+ human rights.” This includes a USAID grant for the “Transformation Salon” in India “to enhance the career and entrepreneurial opportunities for the transgender community” and similar projects.

According to the report, the DOS authorized more than $3.2 million in small grants to 116 “LGBTQI+” organizations in 73 countries and USAID spent “more than $7 million to support activities … that integrate LGBTQI+ equities” and “leveraged more than $11 million from private philanthropy to advance the human rights of LGBTQI+ persons.”

According to the report, DOS and USAID used their influence to pressure foreign governments into adopting policies that conform to gender ideology. One of the top priorities was to put an end to “conversion therapy,” understood as any therapy directed toward changing “an individual’s sexual orientation or gender identity” including “behaviors or gender expressions, or to eliminate or reduce sexual or romantic attractions or feelings toward individuals of the same sex.” 

Additionally, Biden rescinded the Mexico City Policy shortly after taking office — an action that allowed federal tax dollars to go toward foreign organizations that encourage women to have abortions. 

“It is the policy of my administration to support women’s and girls’ sexual and reproductive health and rights [including abortion] in the United States, as well as globally,” Biden said at the time.

On the domestic front, Secretary of State Antony Blinken issued a memorandum, obtained by The National Review, that included guidelines to discourage staff members from “misgendering” — which means using pronouns consistent with a person’s biological sex when that person self-identifies as the opposite gender — and stated that it can be “problematic” to assume someone’s gender based on his or her appearance.

How to reverse the promotion of gender ideology and abortion

Stefano Gennarini, vice president for legal studies at the Center for Family and Human Rights (C-Fam), told CNA that Trump should sign an executive order to reinstate the Mexico City Policy — which banned federal funding for overseas groups that promote abortion — and expand that ban to include the promotion of gender ideology. 

“Anyone who receives U.S. funds must agree not to promote abortion and gender ideology, specifically the notion that gender is a social construct,” Gennarini said. “This is what conservative lawmakers proposed in the [President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief] reauthorization battle in Congress.” 

He added that Trump could rescind every Biden order that promotes “gender ideology” and order a 30-day review of all USAID “strategies, programs, and grants to ensure they comply with the new Mexico City Policy and do not promote abortion or gender ideology.”

“All incompatible strategies, programs, and grants must be rescinded,” Gennarini continued. “Incompatible strategies, programs, and grants should be replaced with ones based on the recognition of the real sex-based differences between men and women and their equal dignity and rights before the law.”

Additionally, Gennarini encouraged the administration to eliminate the White House’s Gender Policy Council, established by Biden to “advance gender equity and equality in both domestic and foreign policy development and implementation,” according to the White House.

Gennarini told CNA that the incoming administration should “appoint proven pro-life leaders to head USAID and the Global Women’s Issues Office at the State Department.” He further suggested that Trump “fire virtually all ‘gender specialists’ who conduct so-called ‘gender analysis’ in the USAID and State Department apparatus.”

null / Credit: joshimerbin/Shutterstock

CNA Staff, Dec 5, 2024 / 08:00 am (CNA).

Is the Bible — already the most widely printed book of all time — having a moment?

As recently reported by the Wall Street Journal, Bible sales — across a variety of editions — rose 22% in the U.S. through the end of October 2024 compared with the same period last year, according to book tracker Circana BookScan. This is despite nearly a third of U.S. adults identifying as religiously unaffiliated. 

In contrast, print book sales overall rose just 1% during the same period. 

Experts cited by the WSJ attributed the rise in Bible sales to readers seeking solace and meaning amid growing anxiety and uncertainty in the culture; the emergence of new Bible versions and formats catering to diverse preferences; and strategic marketing campaigns to reach new audiences, such as young people wanting to make their faith their own by buying their own Bible. 

Several prominent Catholic publishers told CNA that they, too, are riding this wave of increased Bible sales, with many attributing the rise to a spiritual hunger among Catholics to dive into God’s word for themselves. 

A biblical ‘moment’ in the culture

For Word on Fire, the Catholic media and publishing apostolate founded by Bishop Robert Barron of Winona-Rochester, Minnesota, the “Bible boom” has been very tangible. 

Brandon Vogt, senior publishing director at Word on Fire and general editor of the Word on Fire Bible series, told CNA that the apostolate has sold over half a million volumes of the Word on Fire Bible since launching the product in 2020, far outpacing their own expectations. 

“We ordered 50,000 copies, which to us seemed like a lot, and we expected those would last for at least a year or two. Shockingly, we sold out the leather copies within 24 hours and most of the hardcover and paperback editions within a few weeks. Sales haven’t slowed since then,” Vogt said. 

Jon Bator, Word on Fire’s senior director of sales and marketing, added that the apostolate was “certainly blown away” by the series’ popularity and has “since struggled to keep up with the consistent demand” — in part because the leather-bound volume is printed in Italy. 

“The monthly demand has been fairly consistent, even with very little marketing and promotion,” he said. 

Word on Fire’s approach to creating its Bible was to “lead with beauty,” Bator said, which means making the Bible itself a beautiful object — taking great care with the volume’s artwork, typography, binding, and materials. Beyond that, the book includes commentary from a wide range of voices, most prominently Barron himself, who is a sought-after preacher.

“By leading with beauty in both design and content, it is especially meant to appeal to those who — whether they fully know it or not — are restlessly seeking the Lord,” Bator added. 

Vogt said he believes that the Bible is having a cultural “moment.”

“From Jordan Peterson’s biblical lectures on Genesis and Exodus, which drew millions of views on YouTube and sold out arenas across the country, to Father Mike Schmitz’s ‘Bible in a Year’ podcast, which for a time was the No. 1 podcast in the world, to Bishop Barron’s weekly YouTube sermons, which draw hundreds of thousands of viewers each Sunday, we’re seeing the Bible presented in fresh and exciting ways and people are responding. The Word on Fire Bible offers just another example,” Vogt said. 

“People have grown weary of the ‘your truth, my truth’ paradigm and are hungry for the truth, which is partly why many are turning back to this ancient text which claims to be the very Word of God, not just one word among many.”

‘A revolution in Catholics reading the Bible’

Ignatius Press, which has been a major name in Catholic Bible publishing for decades, recently announced a new study Bible created in concert with professor Scott Hahn’s St. Paul Center for Biblical Theology that is already contributing to the ongoing Bible boom. 

The new Ignatius Catholic Study Bible includes the complete text of the Revised Standard Version, Second Catholic Edition of the Bible, plus notes, detailed maps, introductory essays for each book, and over 17,000 footnotes and thousands of cross-references to the Catechism of the Catholic Church. The notes aim to clarify the historical and cultural context, explain unfamiliar customs, and illuminate theological themes, emphasizing the interconnectedness of the Old and New Testaments. 

Mark Brumley, president of Ignatius Press, told CNA he sees the recent surge in Bible sales as a reflection of a growing hunger for God and spiritual guidance in society. The new Ignatius Catholic Study Bible has already sold about 40,000 copies, with at least 20,000 more expected to sell from the current print run, he said. 

Ignatius already sells approximately 100,000 copies of various editions of its Ignatius Bible line annually, and Brumley confirmed that the company has seen a “steady increase” in interest and sales in recent years.

“I’m not surprised that this is happening. I see signs of it in my own Catholic parish and in different places around the country, that Catholics are reading the Bible,” Brumley said in response to questions from CNA during a Dec. 2 press event.

The Bible is “a place where increasingly Catholics go to understand what God has said and done in history … I’m not surprised that Bible sales are up. We’re at a point in the Catholic Church, I think, where we’re seeing almost a revolution in Catholics reading the Bible.”

Brumley told CNA he sees the Ignatius Catholic Study Bible as a complementary resource rather than a replacement for other Bibles. He expressed excitement about the diverse range of Catholic Bibles available, recognizing the contributions of other publishers like Ascension Press and the Augustine Institute. 

He said he hopes the new Ignatius Catholic Study Bible will help Catholics in not just reading the Bible but understanding it in its entirety. 

“We’re allowing Catholics to have access to the Bible and to kind of improve their game in reading Scripture, so that Bible teachers and Bible professors can come along and bring them yet to even a higher level … I’m happy that they’re going to have this tool available to them to help them go deeper and come to know Jesus more solidly.”

The ‘explosive factor’ of ‘Bible in a Year’

Beginning in the first days of 2021, the “Bible in a Year” podcast, read in its entirety by popular Minnesota priest Father Mike Schmitz, climbed the podcast charts and dethroned several of the most popular secular podcasts for a few weeks, going on to be downloaded more than half a billion times. 

Jonathan Strate, CEO of Ascension, the Catholic publishing company that produces the podcast, told CNA that “Bible in a Year” (BIY) has been an “explosive factor” driving Ascension’s Bible sales.

Already a popular item, the Great Adventure Catholic Bible, which is formatted to be read in concert with BIY, remained sold out for months after the launch of the podcast at the beginning of 2021.

While unable to quantify whether or not its own Bible sales boom contributed to the nationwide trend, Strate said the company “certainly hope BIY has been a factor in this revival.”

“We find that BIY is both bringing in new audience members and also inviting current members to repeat the journey year after year. We hear from audience members who repeat BIY annually and find new insights and meanings every year,” he told CNA, adding that Ascension continually receives requests from customers for additional Bible products on top of what they already offer.

In addition to the Bible itself, Ascension promotes its color-coded Bible Timeline Learning System, created by Bible scholar Jeff Cavins and designed to help people understand “how the big picture of salvation history fits together.”

“Many people have struggled to read the Bible for years because they’ve never been taught that it tells the story of God’s salvation of humanity from the beginning of time until now. Having this insight, and the color coding on every page, helps them make connections they never have before. Understanding what they’re reading helps them fall in love with Scripture and want to keep returning to it again and again,” Strate said.

The nave of Notre-Dame de Paris Cathedral on Nov. 29, 2024. The cathedral is set to reopen with a planned weekend of ceremonies on Dec. 7–8, 2024, five years after the 2019 fire that ravaged the world heritage landmark and toppled its spire. / Credit: STEPHANE DE SAKUTIN/POOL/AFP via Getty Images

Rome Newsroom, Dec 5, 2024 / 06:00 am (CNA).

The Paris cathedral reopens on Dec. 8, but the celebrations for the cathedral’s return to worship will last until Pentecost next year.

WASHINGTON – Most Reverend Timothy P. Broglio of the Archdiocese for the Military Services, USA, and president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has issued a statement commemorating the thirtieth anniversary of Ukraine’s voluntary relinquishing of its nuclear arsenal, highlighting the country’s courage in envisioning a world free of nuclear weapons. 

“Thirty years ago today, on December 5, 1994, in a truly prophetic gesture in favor of global peace, Ukraine voluntarily relinquished its nuclear arsenal, the third largest in the world at that time. The Russian Federation, the United States, and the United Kingdom pledged to respect the ‘independence, sovereignty, and the existing borders of Ukraine.’ France and China variously echoed these promises. Unfortunately, this pledge was broken by the Russian annexation of Crimea in 2014 and the invasion in 2022. As the bitter conflict rages, with mounting civilian deaths and widespread displacement, we commemorate the time when the Ukrainian people opted for life, liberty, and peace, courageously envisioning a world free of nuclear weapons.  

“Recently, as Ukraine marked 1,000 days since the invasion began, Pope Francis wrote to the Apostolic Nuncio in Ukraine, Archbishop Visvaldas Kulbokas, to express his solidarity with the suffering people of Ukraine. We join our Holy Father in reaffirming his call for peace when he said, ‘It is this word – peace – unfortunately forgotten by the world today, that we would like to hear resound in the families, homes, and squares of dear Ukraine.’” 

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VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- The celebration of a Holy Year every 25 years is an acknowledgment that "the Christian life is a journey calling for moments of greater intensity to encourage and sustain hope as the constant companion that guides our steps toward the goal of our encounter with the Lord Jesus," Pope Francis wrote.

Opening the Holy Door to St. Peter's Basilica on Christmas Eve, the pope will formally inaugurate the Jubilee Year 2025 with its individual, parish and diocesan pilgrimages and with special celebrations focused on specific groups from migrants to marching bands, catechists to communicators and priests to prisoners.

Inside the Vatican basilica, the door had been bricked up since Nov. 20, 2016, when Pope Francis closed the extraordinary Holy Year of Mercy. 

Dismantling the brick wall began Dec. 2 with a ritual of prayer and the removal of a box containing the key to the door and Vatican medals. The Holy Doors at the basilicas of St. John Lateran, St. Mary Major and St. Paul Outside the Walls were to be freed of their brickwork in the week that followed.

In January 2021, as the world struggled to return to some kind of normalcy after the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic, Pope Francis announced that he had chosen "Pilgrims of Hope" as the theme for the Holy Year.

"We must fan the flame of hope that has been given us and help everyone to gain new strength and certainty by looking to the future with an open spirit, a trusting heart and farsighted vision," the pope wrote in a letter entrusting the organization of the Jubilee to Archbishop Rino Fisichella, president of the then-Pontifical Council for Promoting New Evangelization.

The pope prayed that the Holy Year would be marked by "deep faith, lively hope and active charity."

A holy year or jubilee is a time of pilgrimage, prayer, repentance and acts of mercy, based on the Old Testament tradition of a jubilee year of rest, forgiveness and renewal. Holy years also are a time when Catholics make pilgrimages to designated churches and shrines, recite special prayers, go to confession and receive Communion to receive a plenary indulgence, which is a remission of the temporal punishment due for one's sins. 

Crossing the threshold of the Holy Door does not give a person automatic access to the indulgence or to grace, as St. John Paul II said in his document proclaiming the Holy Year 2000. But walking through the doorway is a sign of the passage from sin to grace which every Christian is called to accomplish.

"To pass through that door means to confess that Jesus Christ is Lord; it is to strengthen faith in him in order to live the new life which he has given us. It is a decision which presumes freedom to choose and also the courage to leave something behind, in the knowledge that what is gained is divine life," St. John Paul wrote.

Pope Boniface VIII proclaimed the first Holy Year in 1300 and decreed that jubilees would be celebrated every 100 years. But just 50 years later, a more biblical cadence, Pope Clement VI proclaimed another holy year.

Pope Paul II decided in 1470 that holy years should be held every 25 years, which has been the practice ever since -- but with the addition of special jubilees, like the Holy Year of Mercy in 2015-16, marking special occasions or needs.

The Jubilee of Mercy had a special focus on encouraging Catholics to return to confession, but the sacrament is a key part of every Holy Year.

Pope Francis, in his bull of indiction for the 2025 Holy Year, said churches are places "where we can drink from the wellsprings of hope, above all by approaching the sacrament of reconciliation, the essential starting point of any true journey of conversion."

The pope also asked Catholics to use the Jubilee Year to nourish or exercise their hope by actively looking for signs of God's grace and goodness around them.

"We need to recognize the immense goodness present in our world, lest we be tempted to think ourselves overwhelmed by evil and violence," he wrote. "The signs of the times, which include the yearning of human hearts in need of God's saving presence, ought to become signs of hope."

Even in a troubled world, one can notice how many people are praying for and demonstrating their desire for peace, for safeguarding creation and for defending human life at every stage, he said. Those are signs of hope that cannot be discounted. 

As part of the Holy Year 2025, Pope Francis has announced the canonization of Blessed Carlo Acutis April 27 during the special Jubilee for Adolescents and the proclamation of the sainthood of Blessed Pier Giorgi Frassati Aug. 3 during the Jubilee for Young Adults.

The lives of the two men, active Catholics who died young, are emblematic of Pope Francis' conviction that hope, "founded on faith and nurtured by charity," is what enables people "to press forward in life" despite setbacks and trials.

Both young Italians knew that the hope they drew from faith had to be shared with others through their words, their way of acting and their charity.

Pope Francis, in the bull of indiction, told Catholics that "during the Holy Year, we are called to be tangible signs of hope for those of our brothers and sisters who experience hardships of any kind."

In addition to individual acts of charity, love and kindness like feeding the hungry, welcoming the stranger or visiting the sick and the imprisoned, Pope Francis has continued his predecessors' practice of observing the jubilee by calling on governments to reduce the foreign debt of the poorest countries, grant amnesty to certain prisoners and strengthen programs to help migrants and refugees settle in their new homes. 

Italy and the city of Rome are keeping one of the messier and tension-producing traditions of a Holy Year: Roadworks and the restoration or cleaning of monuments, fountains and important buildings. With the opening of the Holy Door just three weeks away, none of the major projects had been completed, but Mayor Roberto Gualtieri promised in late November that most of the roads would open and most of the scaffolding would come down by Jan. 1.

Archbishop Fisichella, the chief Vatican organizer of the Jubilee Year, said in late November that the Vatican had commissioned a university to forecast the Holy Year pilgrim and tourist influx. They came up with a prediction of 32 million visitors to Rome.

The multilingual jubilee website -- www.iubilaeum2025.va -- has been up and running for months and includes the possibility of reserving a time to pass through the Holy Door at St. Peter's and the other major basilicas of Rome.

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops also has a special section on its website -- www.usccb.org/committees/jubilee-2025 -- with information about traveling to Rome for the Holy Year and for celebrating the special jubilees in one's own diocese or parish.
 

Jaime Mayor Oreja inaugurates the sixth Transatlantic Summit of the Political Network for Values ​​held in Spain’s Senate. / Credit: Nicolás de Cárdenas/ACI Prensa

Madrid, Spain, Dec 4, 2024 / 17:10 pm (CNA).

The theme for this year’s Political Network for Values ​​Transatlantic Summit from Dec. 1–2 in Spain was “For Freedom and the Culture of Life.”

Zion Lutheran Church in Long Valley, New Jersey, is one of two churches that have won a victory against county officials who were excluding them from a historic preservation grant program. / Credit: Zeete, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons

CNA Staff, Dec 4, 2024 / 16:40 pm (CNA).

Two churches in New Jersey have won a victory against county officials who were excluding them from a historic preservation grant program, a ruling that comes after a key Catholic religious liberty clinic backed their lawsuit. 

First Liberty Institute, a Texas-based religious liberty legal group, said in a Monday press release that the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey issued a preliminary injunction against Morris County ordering officials to allow two churches to participate in the county’s Historic Preservation Trust Fund. 

In her ruling this week, District Judge Evelyn Padin said the case “illustrates the inherent tension” between the First Amendment’s guarantee of religious freedom and its barring of government endorsement of religion. 

The court determined that a “likely free exercise clause violation” stemmed from the county’s policy. The injunction does not order the churches to receive county funding but rather to make them eligible for it. 

Jeremy Dys, an attorney with First Liberty Institute, said in the group’s press release that the U.S. Supreme Court has repeatedly “declared that all forms of religious discrimination by the government are unconstitutional.” 

“We are thrilled that the court recognized that religious institutions cannot be excluded from public funding programs like preservation grants simply because of their religious character or religious activities,” Dys said. 

The parishes, Mendham Methodist Church and Zion Lutheran Church Long Valley, were supported in their lawsuit by the University of Notre Dame School of Law’s Religious Liberty Clinic, which argued in June that the county’s barring the churches from the program “violates the law and harms congregations and their surrounding communities.”

The Notre Dame Religious Liberty Clinic had argued that barring the churches from the grant program “threatens significant harms that can never be undone,” up to and including church closures. 

The county policy is “squarely unconstitutional,” the clinic said.

The county rule came from a 2018 New Jersey Supreme Court ruling that asserted that including the churches in the historic grant preservation program violated the state constitution. 

The U.S. Supreme Court refused to consider a review of the state Supreme Court’s decision, though Justice Brett Kavanaugh said in a statement after that decision that the state rule appeared to be unconstitutional. 

“Barring religious organizations because they are religious from a general historic preservation grants program is pure discrimination against religion,” he said.